Notes from the January 5 COVID-19 Media Briefing
-County Executive Marc Elrich discussed his experience with COVID-19 over the past week, saying his symptoms included a sore throat and waves of fatigue. He was mostly without a fever throughout and said his experience reinforced that vaccines prevent hospitalizations.
-MCPS will be ordering kn95 masks for students, in addition to teachers and staff.
-Thanked clean up crews for clearing roads and sidewalks and thanked HHS for keeping testing sites open during inclement weather.
Update on County Metrics:
-31% of County hospital beds are occupied by COVID patients, 459 patients total.
-State of Emergency order should help bring more hospital staff on.
-County will continue to work with MCPS to target areas with lower vaccination rates, including combination adult and pediatric booster clinics.
-396,000 rapid tests in the first shipment, goal is to make them as widely available as possible.
-Libraries will be used as distribution centers for rapid tests.
-Large scale, State-run testing site hopefully coming Germantown.
-Working on clarifying CDC guidelines for quarantine. Montgomery County is currently recommending a rapid test on day 5 before leaving isolation/quarantine and to wear a mask the remaining 5 days.