Harnett County Board of Health Minutes of Regular Meeting July 21, 2022  The Harnett County Board of Health met in regular session on Thursday, July 21, 2022 in the Health Department Board Room, Harnett County Governmental Complex, Members present: Dr. Laura Smith, Chairwoman, Ms. Emily Barefoot, Dr. Catherine Evans, DDS, Dr. Amanda Langdon, DVM, Ms. Linda Sturdivant, and Mr. John Rouse, Members present by conference call: Ms. Amy Allen, RN, Ms. Gayle Adams, and Ms. Others present: Oliver Tolksdorf, Patricia Davis, Debra Harris-Hawkins, and Gail  307 W. Cornelius Harnett Blvd., Lillington, North Carolina.  Jr., Health Director. Barbara McKoy. Hobbs.  Chairwoman Smith called meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.  Announcements - Mr. Rouse announced that Board of Health members, Dr. Kim Fowler, PhD and Ms. Stacie Hogan, RPH, are unavailable to attend tonight's meeting. Health Department staff unavailable to attend are Natasha Johnson, Mary Jane Sauls Consent Agenda - Minutes - Motion made by Dr. Catherine Evans, DDS, for the May 19, 2022 minutes to be approved as presented and seconded by Ms. Emily Consider additions and deletions to the published agenda - None made. Public Comment - Period of up to 30 minutes for informal comments allowing 3 minutes for each presentation - Chairwoman Smith opened the floor for informal comments by the public, allowing 3 minutes for each presentation up to 30 minutes. Debt Setoff- Gail Hobbs reported that since the last meeting, the Debt Setoff program has collected an additional $1,534.95 and the collection year to date total is  and Ainsley Johnson.  Barefoot. Motion Carried.  Seeing no one, Chairwoman Smith closed the informal comments.  $4,061.85.  Recommendation to Establish Fees: Gail Hobbs presented the following fees for new  fees or to established fees: CPT CODE 46900  DESCRIPTION Destruction of Lesion-Anus  RECOMMENDED PRICE  $170    Page 2 Board of Health July 21, 2022  Harnett County Health Department Board Room  54050 82105 90710  Chemical Destruction of Growths of Penis AFPIApha-feotprotein) Test Proquad(MMR and Varicella)  $105 $39.94 $270  Motion to approve the new and established fees from Dr. Amanda Langdon, DVM Infant Mortality/Child Fatality Prevention Report - Debra Harris-Hawkins presented the Infant Mortality and Child Fatality Prevention report. Infant mortality is the death of a baby before its first birthday. Infant mortality rates are the number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births within a given time frame, usually a year. Harnett County data was presented with the total number of1 live births from 2020, which included 1,867 births reported. The number of infant deaths reported was seven. Harnett County's infant mortality rate was 3.7 per 1,000 live births. In comparison with the NC rate of 6.9 per 1,000 live births. Race/Ethnicity: Oft the seven (7)i infant deaths, three (3) were reported as Non-Hispanic/White, two (2) Non-Hispanic /African American, and two (2) Hispanic infant deaths. Two of the infant fatalities reported cited infant unsafe sleep fatalities. This sub-category includes any kind of unintentional suffocation, strangulation, or asphyxiation. The seven infant deaths represent approximately 47% of the child deaths reported in the county. A review of a few of the Health Department program and services provides in our efforts of improving women's reproductive health, maternal health, and infant health were presented. We will continue to monitor and work with outreach efforts educate on importance of early and continuous prenatal care including promoting the maternal Child Fatality Prevention Team: The Harnett County Child Fatality Prevention and Community Child Protection Team (CCPT) is a multidisciplnary group charged to review child fatalities in Harnett County occurring in children between the ages of birth through seventeen. The purpose of the Child Fatality Prevention is to review child deaths to better understand the causes of these deaths and to make recommendations based on the team's findings in order to reduce future child fatalities. Members discuss outcomes of services and circumstances surrounding the child's death. The number of child deaths in 2020 for Harnett County was a total of 15 deaths. The largest number of the deaths occurring in the under 1 age group. The leading causes of death were cited as illness, accident, other, homicide, and birth defects and perinatal. A few of the recommendations that the teams made, in effort to prevent future child fatalities. Educate on the importance of ongoing and continuous prenatal care. Promote safe sleep environment for infants, and promote ongoing  and seconded by Dr. Catherine Evans, DDS. Motion Carried.  health programs and services offered at the Health Department.    Page 3 Board of Health July 21, 2022  Harnett County Health Department Board Room  supervision of children. The CFPT and CCPT teams work to provide ongoing child safety campaigns and provide parents and caregivers with resources. Health Director's Report and Program Reports = Mr. John Rouse, Jr.  Accreditation - Mr. Rouse reported the Health Department continues to work to maintain Accreditation status. Accreditation demonstrates the Harnett County Health Department capacity to deliver the three core functions and the ten Essential Services of Public Health. The Health Department will have the As part of the overall Accreditation we are required to submit an agency Strategic Plan. The Health Department is continuing to work on increasing the number of Community Health Assessment (CHA) surveys along with our community partners Harnett Health and Campbell University. The community input will be reviewed and incorporated in the overall Health Department  Accreditation site visit in October/November 2023.  Strategic Plan 2022-2025.  FY 2022-23 - Mr. Rouse stated the county budget has been approved and he will bring the final year-end report to the September meeting. Women, Infants and Children (WIC) has been approved in the budget to unfreeze a Processing Assistant IV position due to state funding is available for this position. The budget also includes the Health Department laboratory to purchase a white blood count (WBC) machine and the county will continue to fund the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) for FY 2022-23. The Health Department will have carryforward Communicable Disease funds for FY 2022-23, an average of $405,000 throughout a two-year period, which includes funds received last year. The Health Department would like to look into purchasing a mobile unit with the funds, the mobile unit will provide the Health Department a way to have access throughout the community for vaccines, children's physicals and other community events. The Board is interested in gathering additional information. Mr. Rouse will obtain more information and come back to the  Board about the mobile unit.  COVID-19 Report - Patricia Davis discussed with the new emerging variant, the Health Department has seen an increase in COVID-19 cases. The current total cases to date is 37,197 with 350 reported associated deaths. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) rates the community transmission level currently as high. During the month of July 2022, Harnett County had 1,051 new cases reported, compared to 1,153 cases in June 2022. Currently Harnett County has    Page 4 Board of Health July 21, 2022  Harnett County Health Department Board Room  six active outbreaks in long-term care facilities. COVID-19 testing has increased in the past two weeks, with an estimated 1,037 tests performed throughout the county last week. The Health Department has seen an increase in the testing clinic held on Fridays and also in the Child Health and Employee clinics. The Health Department is in the process on working with North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) to obtain at home test kits to available to distribute to the public. Currently we have received 1,000 test and will begin a plan for distributing soon. More information to come on this program. COVID-19 vaccinations continue to be available every weekday as walk-ins and appointments in our clinics. The Health Department began administering Pfizer and Moderna vaccine to recipients age 6 months and up on June 23, 2022, and we continue to offer all three brands of COVID-19 vaccines. We continue to transfer vaccines to surrounding pharmacies to increase access for vaccination, over 34,000 dose have been transferred to date.  Clinical Reports - Patricia Davis  Child Health - Child Health (CH) has started to prepare for back to school physicals and immunizations. Back to school immunization clinic days will be announced in the coming months. Visits continue to consistent with COVID-19 Employee Clinic - Employee Clinic continues to operate well with 120 visits reported for June 2022, and increased COVID-19 testing in the clinic. Adult Health = Adult Health clinic has increased in Prenatal and Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) visits. Prenatal has seen a great increase in visits with 163 visits reported for June 2022 and STD: increased to 75 visits. The Health Department had three Nurses to complete the North Carolina Communicable Disease Course-ntroduction to Communicable Disease Surveillance and Investigation in North Carolina. This course is required for every Public Health Nurse who has responsiblities in Communicable Disease Communicable Disease - Reportable disease cases for June 2022 were at a total of 19, and we continue to see an increase in syphilis cases with four cases reported last month. The syphilis increase has been seen across the state and we continue to work with Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS) to increase partner notification and treatment. The Health Department continues to stay up to date with all state guidance regarding Monkeypox. The Health Department staff have attended webinars and state calls on signs, symptoms, investigation, treatment and surveillance. The current count in North Carolina  testing with an increase in the past two weeks.  surveillance and investigation.    Page 5 Board of Health July 21, 2022  Harnett County Health Department Board Room  is 21 cases, with 7 counties in North Carolina were allocated 444 available doses of the Jynneos vaccine. Phase 2A of the vaccine distribution started on July 14, 2022 and an additional 2,365 doses were distributed. Phase 2B is expected to take place this week and will result in an additional 1,739 doses arriving in North Carolina. These allocations will be enough to vaccinate approximately 2,300 individuals, the vaccine is currently only recommended for people with known or suspected exposure to Monkeypox. This includes people who have been in close physical contact with someone diagnosed with Monkeypox or men who have sex with men or transgender individuals who have had multiple or anonymous sex partners in the last 14 days. Laboratory - The Health Department lab is equipped to process any specimens related to Monkeypox and send to the state lab if needed. The lab services Flu Update = The Health Department staff have started planning for the fall influenza vaccination outreach, and we anticipate to begin administering flu vaccine in September 2022. We will offer drive up daily clinics, outreach in Environmental Health - Oliver Tolksdorf reported the Food & Lodging staff are fully staffed with five employees who are all authorized and working in the field. Environmental Health continues to distribute the mosquito dunks to the public and they have received good feedback from repeat visitors from previous years. Aging & Case Management - Mr. Rouse announced The Division on Aging's Volunteer Services Program currently has 200 active volunteers serving across Harnett County, and we continue to recruit volunteers to deliver meals for the Meals on Wheels Program in all municipalities. The new Family Caregiver Program Specialist, Marcie Wood started on July 11, 2022, and will be trained in the coming weeks to provide Medicare Counseling. The Seniors Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP) Medicare Program is getting ready to experience some changes across the state as regions will change and new regional managers will be assigned. The next New to Medicare class will be held on Wednesday, September 31, 2022 from 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm at the Harnett County Resource Center Library. Congregate nutrition participants have received Farmer's Market coupons to be used at state certified Farmer's Markets. This initiative increases fresh fruit and vegetable consumption for the  increased to 777 clients seen in June 2022.  community areas and a mass drive thru event.  seniors while helping local farmers.    Page 6 Board of Health July 21, 2022  Harnett County Health Department Board Room  Marketing/Communty Outreach - Debra Harris-Hawkins presented the World Breastfeeding Week 2022 is recognized August 1-7, 2022. The Women, Infant and Children (WIC) program will be providing Breastfeeding Resource bags" for breastfeeding mothers and moms-to-be. The free resource bags can be picked up at the Health Department. The Health Department will be participating several upcoming community outreach programs including back-  to school community events.  Closed Session - There was no need for closed session.  New Business = Chairwoman Smith opened the floor for New Business. Being none  Chairwoman Smith closed New Business.  Chairwoman Smith adjourned the meeting.  Respectfylly submitted, John Rouse, Jr. Health Director  ,  Dr.  pa