He dreaded making the announcement this week that Marshall County had lost a 73-year-old resident who was hospitalized and on a ventilator at the time of his passing.
But Mark Ackermann, the threat preparedness director for the Marshall County Health Department, did inform the public on Monday of the unfortunate death, the county’s first since the pandemic began in mid-March. As of Tuesday, there have been 124 positive Coivd-19 tests returned in Marshall County, and since July 1 there has been an alarming increase involving residents between 10 and 29 years old.
The coronavirus continues to infect anyone it can, and Ackerman believes the most exposures take place when folks drop their guard during social functions, and the fact that weddings have been deemed essential likely plays a part. The man’s job has evolved from preparedness director to “reaction” director, and that’s meant the collection of statistics, applying guidance from state officials to county policy, organizing a mass testing, and communicating updated information about the number of positive tests and their ages, too.
Ackermann hoped W.Va. Gov. Jim Justice would delay the return for in-school instruction for at least two weeks whether it involved mandated virtual instruction or not, but instead the governor stated that schools will begin on Sept. 8, and parents will have a choice between the online classes or in-building teaching.
How long after you were hired by the Marshall County Health Department did the pandemic begin, and how did COVID-19 change your job description.
The pandemic was declared right at four months into me taking the position at the Health Department.
COVID-19 completely changed my job because the Health Department immediately went from a Preparedness mode into a Response mode.
During this beginning time, I was supposed to be building community relations with the differing community partners and agencies to be able to continue planning for just such an event, learning what my job was supposed to be, going to orientations with the State to actually learn each of the different systems we use, how to manage our Threat Preparedness Grant and get additional training on the basic tenants of this job. With the pandemic, trainings and orientations were canceled, meetings with community partners went from an introductory “I am the new Threat Director” to “How can we assist you” in the blink of an eye. Everything went directly into overdrive, and I found myself presenting immediately after our Local Health Officer, Dr. Andrew Schmitt, MD, to the Marshall County Local Emergency Planning Committee in March the information we had learned about this new disease. My job quickly became learn everything you can about COVID-19, as fast as you can, and keep the Health Department and everyone else updated when changes come out from the CDC.
How difficult has it been to coordinate testing locations and the mass testing that took place in Marshall County?
This has been one of the easiest tasks I have encountered during this pandemic. The community partners in Marshall County have been excellent to work with, and communities and agencies have stepped up immediately when wanted to plan for the mass testing. All the needed agencies have worked well together planning these events. We have an excellent volunteer coordinator in RN Cathy Jones and the volunteer corps stepped up and provided excellent assistance for the testing.
Please explain why the Marshall County Health Department reports positive tests differently from other West Virginia counties.
When we first started reporting out positives, we discussed what we wanted to report out, and we felt it best to report out ages and symptoms to be able to provide the public with as much information as we could provide them without violating any privacy laws. We felt that this was a way for us to be as transparent as possible to the residents of Marshall County. With Marshall County being smaller, and our numbers lower, we initially felt it would be easy to report this out. We began to see a rapid increase in the number of people following our reporting on our Facebook page, and the people reached went rapidly from about 700 people reached per post to over 15,000 people reached on most postings. We do get many responses weekly thanking us for the level of information we provide.
We also placed out an electronic signboard along Route 2 to provide these numbers for anyone driving past. Previous Health Department staff had purchased these through grant funding, and we thought there was no better way to use this equipment.
Our reporting is just what works for our department. Were not saying it’s any better than any other county Health Department; it’s just what we found works well for us.
In your opinion, how are most people being exposed to the coronavirus at this time?
Most people, right now, I would say are community spread. Many people that we get as a positive have been listed as a direct contact by another positive individual; they go to receive testing and then come back positive. These events could be parties such as a baby shower or graduation party, a “party out the creek,” or just a small gathering of folks finally getting back together, after having been separated during much of the shutdown time.
What will it take for the pandemic to end?
No. 1 – A continued, increased understanding by the community that without following distancing and masking, we could ultimately end back up in increased shutdowns again if we see large level spikes. Following the advice of the medical experts of reopening slowly, carefully, and people being very mindful of the other people they are around, will greatly slow the spread.
No. 2 – The development of a vaccine to assist in controlling this virus. While this virus is very similar to influenza, I think this will be around for quite some time, just as influenza, but the experts will eventually be able to develop stronger medications to assist in controlling it.
Only after these two do I believe the pandemic will be canceled.
