The Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1 is no longer tracking COVID-19 cases, district administration announced Sunday evening. In this May 11, 2020 file photo photo, Salt Lake County Health Department public health nurse Lee Cherie Booth demonstrates contact tracing training. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Letter reportedly written with school board president’s guidance; Southwest Health notes highest positivity rate since onset of pandemic

Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1 is no longer tracking COVID-19 cases amid the fast-spreading omicron variant, “school administration” announced in a letter Sunday afternoon.

The move to halt contact tracing comes the week after Southwest Health System recorded the highest test positivity rate since the onset of the pandemic, according to Marc Meyer, director of pharmacy services and infection control.

Contact tracing is “no longer possible the way we’ve been doing it,” the letter from the school district said, because of lags in test result reporting, spikes in cases and “our district’s need to have staff focus on filling shortages to prioritize in-person learning.”

The letter advised families and staff that they should assume that they are exposed to the virus each day.

Families will no longer be notified if their children might have been exposed to an individual positive for COVID-19, the letter said.

On its website, the RE-1 district lists current active COVID-19 cases per school:

• Beech Street Preschool: 0
• Kemper Elementary: 8
• Lewis-Arriola Elementary: 3
• Manaugh Elementary: 1
• Mesa Elementary: 3
• Montezuma-Cortez High School: 11
• Montezuma-Cortez Middle School: 11
• Pleasant View Elementary: 0
• Staff: 4

The district encouraged the school community to stay home when sick and outlined suggested COVID-19 protocol including masking, social distancing, testing, disinfecting, monitoring for symptoms, and getting vaccinated.

The letter was signed “Montezuma-Cortez School District Administration.“

However, Debra Ramsey, executive assistant to the superintendent, said Monday afternoon that the letter was written by RE-1 Health Services Director Jaclyn Hall, with guidance from Board of Education President Sheri Noyes.

Ramsey emailed the letter.

Superintendent Risha VanderWey was placed on paid administrative leave Friday, according to an emailed announcement Monday from Noyes. Noyes’ letter stated that an unidentified “quorum of highly qualified administrative staff members” would fulfill VanderWey’s duties. Assistant Superintendent Elisabeth A. Richard resigned Jan. 4 on disability leave.

In the district, mask wearing is optional.

Marc Meyer, director of pharmacy services and infection control at Southwest Health System, said in-house line swab tests produce relatively quick results, in anywhere from two to 12 hours.

The Montezuma County Health Department, Meyer said, manages the results from state-sponsored free tests, which are shipped to California for analysis.

Montezuma County Public Health Director Bobbi Lock was not immediately available by phone Monday afternoon.

As of Monday afternoon, 16 of 20 Southwest Memorial hospital beds were full, and five of the beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients, Meyer said.

For the week beginning Jan. 17 and ending Friday, Southwest Memorial saw a 38.5% positivity rate out of about 300 tests – the highest percentage yet for the hospital, Meyer said.

From Jan. 14 to Friday, Montezuma County charted 300 new COVID-19 cases, according to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment data.

Since the start of the pandemic, 21 Montezuma County residents have died because of COVID-19, and 60 have died with the virus in their system, according to CDPHE.

Meyer recommended vaccines and masking when out and about in the community.

Referring to a recent study from the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Meyer said that data reflects individuals having received booster shots are less likely to contract, become hospitalized from or die from COVID-19.

That study, released Friday, sourced data from 25 U.S. jurisdictions, sampled from April 4 through Dec. 25 amid the prominence of the delta and omicron variants.

Study data exclusively from December shows that out of 1,987,683 evaluated cases of COVID-19, about 53.4% were in unvaccinated individuals, about 40.3% were in fully vaccinated individuals and about 6.3% were in those who had received booster shots.

The study included preliminary data for COVID-19-associated deaths during the emergence of omicron from the first week of December. Unvaccinated individuals accounted for about 76.6% of 2,912 evaluated deaths, while vaccinated individuals comprised about 23.4% of the deaths. Data was not broken down for those who received booster shots.

From October to November, when delta reigned as the primary variant, about 62.3% of 1,779,072 study cases were in unvaccinated individuals. Fully vaccinated individuals represented about 36.6 % of the cases, and about 1.1% of the cases were in boosted individuals.

In that same period, about 74.1% of 22,305 studied COVID-19-associated deaths were in unvaccinated individuals, about 24.6% in fully vaccinated individuals and about 1.3% in boosted individuals.

“That’s pretty telltale numbers to me,” Meyer said.

This article will be updated when additional information becomes available.

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Anderson explained that not all PPE could be disinfected.

“We have a collection process and a sorting process, so any PPE that’s visibly contaminated we wouldn’t put through the unit, and that’s incredibly important in terms of healthcare worker safety.

“After we’ve sorted it in a pressure room, we then place it into the oven, which is built into the shipping container and disinfect it under our set temperatures and times and then move it through to the sorting process. And again, any PPE that’s damaged along the way would get diverted to waste.”

Port Taranaki commercial head Ross Dingle said he had been happy to be able to help the team with its innovative project.

“As a border-facing organisation at the frontline of Covid-19, Port Taranaki has had a lot of its own staff and operators within the port utilising PPE, and actually considerable quantities of PPE. So it’s really great to have a project like this which allows that PPE to be recycled, obviously that has really positive impacts on the environment and ensures that PPE is available for those who need it. We’re absolutely thrilled that this project been a success.”

Anderson said it was paramount it found ways to mitigate the ever-growing amount of medical waste that went to landfills, or was polluting lands, rivers, and seas.

And as the project had evolved, it found three potential outputs for the unit.

“One was to disinfect PPE for potential reuse and the event of shortages during the pandemic. Two, we could look at disinfecting PPE for safe recycling of the product, and three, we’re looking at hydrothermal processes using waste valorization, basically busting PPE waste into water and reducing the amount of waste going to landfill, but also polluting our oceans and seas.”

The next step was to transfer the unit to the University of Auckland faculty of engineering,

Yvonne said they managed to achieve a lot in the past 18 months, but there were still questions that needed to be answered.

“Healthcare and other frontline worker acceptability is a key consideration for us with any disinfection solution of PPE and we are committed to prioritising their voice in the wider project.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to engage some partners to look at all of the logistics of potential scale and implementation for this unit wherever it’s needed.”

The project received $1.3 million in funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment through the Covid-19 Innovation Acceleration Fund, and a $46,000 grant from the Medical Assurance Society Foundation.

RNZ

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The cleaning expert, Lynsey Crombie, who regularly appears on ITV’s This Morning to detail her tips and trick, uses denture tablets for lots of household jobs.

It also is gently abrasive, gently scraping dirt from surfaces without damaging the surfaces.

Citric acid, another ingredient of the denture tablets, is a great ingredient on its own to pair with bicarbonate and soda.

Citric acid helps cleaning products to get through mold, mildew, and bacteria more effectively.

Lynsey’s followers discussed the tip in the comments.

Lynsey also recently detailed six simple daily tasks to keep on top of your housework.

The cleaning guru said: “Do you want to keep on top of your housework? Yes.”Then make sure you do these simple six tasks a day.”

Lynsey Crombie’s six daily cleaning tasks

• Make the bed
• Laundry load
• Vacuum
• Kitchen surfaces
• Toilet clean
• Tidy up

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At 8:30 in the morning, Hou Dongyao starts his busy day working in Zhengzhou East Railway Station in Zhengzhou, capital city of central China’s Henan Province. As a shift supervisor, Hou begins with the morning roll call and work assignment.

Roughly half an hour later, he rushes to the waiting rooms upstairs to meet his wife, who just got off her shift.

It’s the only moment during the day that the couple could meet. And the time they share together is barely enough to exchange a few words and tell each other to take care.

“Before COVID-19, both of us were so busy during the Spring Festival that we could only meet once a week sometimes. Everything was discussed in brief phone calls,” recalled Guo Shengnan, Hou’s wife.

“It’s time for us to balance our work and our family. We cherish the little time,” Hou said.

The Spring Festival travel rush, or Chunyun, is known as the world’s largest annual human migration. Billions of trips were made every year over the course of 40 days before the pandemic struck in early 2020.

It was the busiest time of the year for Hou and his wife. Every winter during the past 10 years, they’d devote most of their time to patrolling the waiting rooms and platforms, answering passengers’ questions and guiding them off and on the trains.

This year, when the travel rush started, Zhengzhou was dealing with a new COVID-19 outbreak, which posed great challenges for the railway staff and services.

“Before the pandemic, 200,000 passenger trips were made in a day sometimes through our railway station. But this year, the number is 60 percent less due to the outbreak. But we’ve still got a lot of work to do as the prevention and control measures are tightened,” Hou said.

Epidemic prevention and control measures have become the norm when entering Chunyun since the pandemic began. Health codes and masks are essential when people take public transportation back home.

Disinfecting public venues, checking body temperature, and reminding people of wearing face masks and keeping a safe social distance have become routine work for the railway staff members. They have also prepared contingency plans for any emergency.

Yu Yang, a chief conductor of the Zhengzhou Railway Bureau, said “once we get the news that there is a passenger on the train whose nucleic acid test result is positive, we will give them a brand new N95 face mask,” adding that immediate measures would be taken to “contain the spread of the virus until the train stops at the next station.”

The Spring Festival is the most important traditional holiday for Chinese people. Most people travel home for family gatherings and reunion dinners despite the distance.

Hou’s wife said she also wanted to spend the special day with her family members. But she felt it’s her mission to ensure others have a smooth journey home.

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People sitting outside a COVID-19 PCR testing facility. Photo: Geo.tv/ file

The Nat­ional Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) has officially curtailed the quarantine period for COVID-19 patients — which previously was at least 10 days — to five days.

The NCOC’s decision comes nearly a month after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shortened the recommended isolation period to five days.

Meanwhile, despite a large number of people getting infected with COVID-19 owing to a serious and widespread Omicron driven outbreak in the country, not everyone can be admitted to healthcare facilities or else it would weigh down the health system of the country.

Limiting interaction with infected persons completely is also “impossible” as per NCOC, which is why it has issued separate guidelines for those who have tested positive, healthcare providers and caretakers of the infected persons, in order to limit the spread of COVID-19 as much is possible.

The guidelines focus on the convenience of people even if they have to quarantine or isolate themselves at home.

What else should people infected with COVID-19 do?

People who have tested positive or are sick with any of these symptoms (cough, shortness of breath, trouble breathing, persistent pain or pressure in chest, bluish lips or face) should:

• Stay home when there is no urgent need to go out, even if you are sick.
• Call your doctor and seek advice.
• Take additional precautions around family members at higher risk, particularly old ones and those having severe underlying health conditions.
• Limit physical contact with others as much as possible; avoid visitors.
• Instead, stay in contact with others through phone or email.
• Keep a distance of two arm’s length (about 6 feet) from others if you have to go out or interact with people.
• Have access to several weeks of medications and supplies at home.
• Eat or be fed in separate rooms.
• Use disposable food service items if possible.

You can view the document for NCOC guidelines here:

What should the caretakers of infected persons do?

• Monitor their own health.
• Keep surfaces disinfected.
• Avoid sharing personal items like dishes, towels, and bedding.
• Use a separate washroom, if possible.
• Wear a mask around the sick person or make them follow the SOP.
• Wear gloves while handling used items used by sick persons and clean hands afterward.
• Wash items handled by sick persons with warm water or disinfect them.
• Take care of your and other household members’ emotional health.

Guidelines for people exposed to COVID-19

If people, who were exposed to COVID-19 or have come in contact with someone infected, are unvaccinated or out from the recommended period for their second dose or not yet boosted, they should:

• Quarantine for five days.
• Strictly follow mask use for five more days after discontinuing isolation.

If people exposed to COVID-19 cannot afford to stay in quarantine, they should:

• Wear a well-fitted mask all the time when surrounded by people for 10 days after being exposed to the virus.

People exposed to COVID-19 has received a booster shot, they don’t need to quarantine but they should:

• Wear a mask for 10 days after the exposure.

However, best practice for all those exposed would be to get tested for SARS-CoV-2 at day 5 after exposure.

NCOC advises people to strictly adhere to mask-wearing even after they discontinue isolation, regardless of their vaccination status.

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Port Taranaki commercial head Ross Dingle said he had been happy to be able to help the team with its innovative project.

“As a border-facing organisation at the frontline of COVID-19, Port Taranaki has had a lot of its own staff and operators within the port utilising PPE, and actually considerable quantities of PPE. So it’s really great to have a project like this which allows that PPE to be recycled, obviously that has really positive impacts on the environment and ensures that PPE is available for those who need it. We’re absolutely thrilled that this project been a success.”

Anderson said it was paramount it found ways to mitigate the ever-growing amount of medical waste that went to landfills, or was polluting lands, rivers, and seas.

And as the project had evolved, it found three potential outputs for the unit.

“One was to disinfect PPE for potential reuse and the event of shortages during the pandemic. Two, we could look at disinfecting PPE for safe recycling of the product, and three, we’re looking at hydrothermal processes using waste valorization, basically busting PPE waste into water and reducing the amount of waste going to landfill, but also polluting our oceans and seas.”

The next step was to transfer the unit to the University of Auckland faculty of engineering,

Anderson said they managed to achieve a lot in the past 18 months, but there were still questions that needed to be answered.

“Healthcare and other frontline worker acceptability is a key consideration for us with any disinfection solution of PPE and we are committed to prioritising their voice in the wider project.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to engage some partners to look at all of the logistics of potential scale and implementation for this unit wherever it’s needed.”

The project received $1.3 million in funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment through the COVID-19 Innovation Acceleration Fund, and a $46,000 grant from the Medical Assurance Society Foundation.

RNZ

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Never let your guard down

With the alarming news of people getting infected with COVID-19 being reported and shared between friends and family, it can get quite daunting to find out that it’s possible you might not be 100 percent safe—even at home where it’s supposed to be a place that protects you from the virus.

“As we stay indoors more often, we should not forget that viruses can still enter our homes and make us sick. Being vigilant is key to staying safe especially since we do most of our shopping online and bring items from the outside,” says senior brand manager for Clorox Southeast Asia Monique Gonzales. “Regular disinfecting of our homes is the sure way to keep our families safe and healthy.”

Keep the house germ and virus-free.

Disinfecting has been part of our routine, and takes up most of our time at home, making sure that everything is, hopefully, germ and virus-free. Here are additional cleaning tips that you might have missed or taken out of your daily routine.

1. Say goodbye to the welcome mat, say hello to the disinfecting mat.
Of all the things that the virus latches on the most, it’s our footwear. We walk so much that external pathogens stick to them quickly. Wiping our shoes on the mat isn’t enough. Bring back the foot bath by mixing water and Pine Sol—makes the shoe bath smelling great, too!

2. Dip used clothes immediately.
We all know the enemy is invisible here, so it’s best to soak all the clothes you wore right away—before you take your both. Pine Sol + water mixture is safe on any type of fabric, so don’t worry.

3. Mop, mop, mop!
Like our shoes, our floors get the most exposure to the any form of dirt. Let’s keep it clean by mopping every so often—also with Clorox bleach + water combo.

4. Wipe your worries away.
Choosing to stay at home has been easier, thanks to our frontliners such as delivery riders and online shopping. But this doesn’t mean we don’t take those extra precautionary measures. We’ve heard of stories on how families never left the house but got infected, and, most probably, the culprit are the delivery packages. So let’s not stop disinfecting all of these items. Clorox disinfecting sprays make it easier to clean.

5. Don’t forget your personal everyday items.
Daily use of items such as mobile phones, car keys, house keys, and jewelry also need to be disinfected. Clorox has come up with Expert Wipes that make it handy and easy to clean anything immediately.

“We at Clorox are one with the government in ensuring that Filipinos stay safe in the middle of this pandemic. We enjoin everyone to keep promoting a hygienic and safe lifestyle by regularly cleaning and disinfecting our surroundings,” ends sales and marketing director for Clorox Southeast Asia Paulo Lao,.

 

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In this second of three articles about our 2021 Napa Climate Champion award winners, we salute John Glaser, recognized in the Community Activist category, and Bob Massaro, founder, and CEO of the Healthy Buildings Companies, honored in the business category.

John Glaser, 1949-2021

John Glaser

With John Glaser’s passing last July, Napa lost a remarkable community leader in creative problem-solving. Thanks in large part to his efforts on the city of Napa’s General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC), which provided community input to the 2040 General Plan, the updated plan is now likely to include a Climate Change and Sustainability Element. The draft plan is currently being reviewed by city staff.

Glaser grew up in Denver, Colorado. A gifted educator, his teaching career brought him to Napa in 1977 where he and his wife, Carol, helped found Sunrise Montessori. He also served as coordinator of Project Concerned throughout Napa County and was subsequently named principal of Temescal High School (now Valley Oak).

In 1985, his life took a pivotal turn when he was hired as the director of employer-employee relations for the Napa Valley Unified School District. “He was thrown into a very adversarial situation and realized that it had to be approached in an entirely different way,” Carol said. “Eventually he worked with both labor and management colleagues to craft a collaborative bargaining process still in use today.”

John and Carol used this “interest-based problem solving” approach in their work as consultants for school districts and public agencies. “This was the basis of his community work: to create the conditions for effective outcomes we need to include all sides, to draw the circle around everyone and work together,” said Carol.

Glaser served as the superintendent of the Napa Valley Unified School District from 2003 to 2010. During his tenure, American Canyon High School was constructed with environmentally-friendly features such as a geothermal exchange system to reduce heating and cooling costs and a one-megawatt solar panel system that provides 80 percent of the electricity needed on campus.

After retirement, Glaser served as a member of the Napa Housing Coalition. Coalition Co-Chair Joelle Gallagher recalled, “John had a true gift for collaboration. He was always looking for ways to bring everyone together to listen, brainstorm and create solutions. John always saw the possibilities.”

Glaser was named a Climate Champion for his work on the Climate Change and Sustainability Element of the city of Napa’s General Plan update. At the December 7, 2020 meeting he stated, “(The Plan should) develop concrete action steps, goals, and a timeline for reaching net-zero climate pollution by 2030 or as soon as possible. That summarizes my values.”

GPAC Chair Chuck Shinnamon noted, “John was the leading advocate of having the City move forward quickly on climate change and sustainability. His ability to bridge different groups and bring them together to craft an agreement was just genius.”

Bob Massaro

Bob Massaro

Submitted photo

Bob Massaro has been in construction for over forty years. Educated in biology and public health, he began using environmentally-friendly building practices in 1983, but the “healthy” aspect of his work developed from a life-changing experience in 1999.

“My 10-year-old son had a very serious asthma attack that caused him to be hospitalized. When I got home from the emergency room, I realized that our house contained many asthma triggers such as carpets, drapes and toxic cleaning supplies. I decided to turn our home into a healthy home.”

Massaro wanted to incorporate these changes into his construction practice and in 1999 decided to focus only on healthy buildings. Today, Massaro’s Healthy Buildings Companies (HBC) design and construct homes and commercial buildings that are “Healthy for People and Healthy for the Planet.”

HBC projects incorporate building practices described in the company’s “Periodic Table of Sustainable Elements,” which Massaro refers to as “our DNA.” Its fifty practices are organized into five categories: Natural Elements, such as collecting rainwater for landscaping and using insulation and window glazing to maximize comfort and energy efficiency), Health and Wellness (using non-toxic surface materials to prevent off-gassing; avoiding natural gas-powered appliances to reduce indoor air pollution), Materials and Resources (using recycled and durable building materials), Community (incorporating courtyards and gardens into multifamily developments; using local labor), and Energy (minimizing energy use and using renewable energy technologies to achieve a net-zero electricity building).

“All homes should be net zero,” said Massaro. “If a building consumes more electricity than it produces, then it’s contributing greenhouse gas emissions and adding to climate change.”

Massaro is concerned that many builders don’t understand the advantages of building green. “We are able to build this way because it makes financial sense. If you put more money into building a green building, you will get more savings in operating costs. In the end, ultra-green, net-zero energy building ends up making money for the homeowner.”

In 2021 Massaro was appointed to the City of Napa’s Planning Commission. As a builder, he had appeared before the Commission many times.

“I love this community and know that sustainable features such as bike paths, green space, and high-quality, low-cost housing benefit everyone. Serving on the Planning Commission is an opportunity to take my hands-on knowledge of sustainable construction to benefit the community.” As he points out, “Climate change is the biggest threat to our economy; a close second is the shortage of housing that’s affordable.”

We recognize Bob Massaro and the Healthy Buildings Companies for “walking the talk” and working to provide homes and buildings that are truly sustainable.

There’s A Growing Interest In Waste-Water Recycling

Catch up on Napa County’s top news stories

The author, Chris Benz, is a retired winemaker and founding member of Napa Climate NOW!

Napa Climate NOW! is a local non-profit citizens’ group advocating for smart climate solutions based on the latest climate science, part of 350 Bay Area. Like, comment, and share the daily Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter posts @napaclimatenow or visit napa.350bayarea.org

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Thank you for your continued patronage.

Bookhouse exists as a place for people to get together.

It’s a limiting factor, in some ways, but also a lesson we’ve learned about ourselves. I was just reviewing our financials for 2021, compared to 2020, and thinking about how our strategy to continue to exist as a business has evolved. Early in the pandemic, we tried to package as much as possible. Over time, we realized that our pricing would have to continue to increase in order to actually deliver money to the bottom line, because of the way our brewery operations were designed.

The result in 2020 was a pretty sizable loss of margin. I made it a goal to not repeat that mistake in 2021, and largely succeeded, though not without a few bumps along the way.Not only that, but our bread and butter is people coming to our place and drinking our beer here. It has been difficult to turn down pursuing more packaging operations, not because of a fear of inadequate quality, but because the amount of time, effort, and lost assortment that the pivot requires.

The fact of the matter is that we are a business who exists to be a place to consume beer (and cider, wine, etc) that is brewed 50 feet away from where it is served. I think it’s a perfectly understandable miscue that folks have about just how “big” certain breweries are, and how economies of scale are quite literally the way many breweries, both here in Cleveland, and around the world, continue to exist.

Like roughly 40% (by count, not by volume of beer made) of all US breweries who are about our size, we made a certain set of assumptions about who our customers are, and how we would serve them. These are not inflexible or intractable expectations, and indeed part of being a business is adapting to change. Adapting to change after change after change is how we’ve gotten this far, and we’ll adapt again.

But before we make another hard pivot, I wanted to reach out and see how you’re doing. Since this is kind of a one-way format, I’ll try to do that by talking about how we’re doing.

· We removed and relocated chairs and tables to the most aggressive degree of social distancing that we’ve ever done. Our inside capacity is now 35; the space is rated by fire code to 105. This is both to protect our staff (who we check in with at least weekly to see how everyone is feeling about working behind the bar), and to ensure more than enough space between seats.

· We’re requiring masks any time folks aren’t at their seats. We’re still offering curbside pickup of everything we’re legally able to sell, for folks who would prefer that method of getting their beer.

· We’re cleaning and disinfecting surfaces, checking temperatures, and minimizing staff overlap as much as possible. I’ll note one big thing here: part of why we’re able to stay open with more flexibility than a lot of other places is because we usually only have one person working behind the bar. Consider it a bug masquerading as a feature; our behind-bar is too small for more than 2 people anyway, even without social distancing.

· We’re doing our best to accommodate changing requirements and expectations from our various health authorities and regulators. We’ve passed every inspection, increased sanitation and monitoring standards, paid for every license on time, renewed certifications, maintained line cleaning schedules, increased spending on cleaning supplies 500% in 2021 v 2020, completed more repairs and scheduled maintenance, and had fewer near-misses in the brewery.

The thing is, all of this only continues to make a difference if we have people coming into the taproom. If that traffic pattern decreases to the point where it is unsustainable, we’ll need to find a new way to bring beer to you. And with about 2-3 days’ notice. So, yeah, that’s how we’re doing. I’m not coming to you with all of this as a way to worry or complain, just to be realistic about the situation in front of us.

It’s a tough situation, because we’re well aware of how scary the caseload is right now; my wife is a nurse who knows firsthand how foul the COVID winds are blowing in our area. The upside of course is that every expectation is that this is a temporary (though extreme) damper, and the hope is that it is short-lived.

But the time is now for figuring out how to weather that storm ahead.So let me know, from where you’re at – is it time to batten down the hatches? Would you buy beer for delivery, could you place a curbside order this week? Have you reviewed us on Google,Yelp, Facebook, or anywhere else? Know anyone who needs a shirt shipped nationwide? Interested in coming in for a pint, at a substantial distance from others?

Send me an email: [email protected]

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Confirmation that a wild duck (Northern shoveler) harvested by a hunter in Hyde County tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has prompted biologists at the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to remind hunters to follow best practices when handling waterfowl after harvest.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced the positive detection to stakeholders Tuesday, January 18, along with the announcement of a second wild duck confirmed to have HPAI in Colleton County, South Carolina since Jan. 14. All three findings are H5N1 HPAI. These are the first wild birds in the United States to have Eurasian H5 HPAI since 2016. The positive samples were collected by USDA as part of their ongoing surveillance program for early detection of HPAI in collaboration with state wildlife agencies. The positive sample from North Carolina was collected on Dec. 30, 2021.

“These positive detections in wild waterfowl are not unexpected, as they can be infected with HPAI and show no signs of illness,” stated a news release from NCWRC. “They can then carry the disease to new areas through fecal material or oral discharges when migrating.”

This type of HPAI virus is considered a low risk to people according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, but it can be dangerous to other birds, including commercial and backyard flocks of poultry.

WRC officials recommend that hunters take these extra precautions offered by the USDA to protect themselves:

• Do not harvest or handle wild birds that are obviously sick or found dead.
• Wear rubber gloves when handling birds, cleaning game or cleaning bird feeders.
• Do not eat, drink or smoke while cleaning game.
• Dress your game birds in the field whenever possible. If you must dress your birds at home, clean them in an area separate from your poultry and pet birds.
• Double bag the inedible parts of the bird and feathers. Tie the inner bag and include your rubber gloves and leave them in the outer bag before tying it closed.
• Wash hands with soap and water immediately after handling game or cleaning bird feeders. If soap and water are not available, use alcohol wipes.
• Wash all tools and work surfaces with soap and water. Then, disinfect them.
• Avoid cross-contamination. Keep uncooked game in a separate container, away from cooked or ready-to-eat foods.
• Cook game meat thoroughly; poultry should reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit to kill disease organisms and parasites.

“If someone comes across a mortality event involving five or more waterbirds or waterfowl, or a mortality event of any size for raptors or avian scavengers, including crows, ravens and gulls, we want to know about them,” stated Joe Fuller, wildlife biologist with the Wildlife Commission. “We are also interested in morbidity events involving any number of those same bird species that are observed with clinical signs consistent with neurological impairment, like swimming in circles, head tilt and lack of coordination.”

The public is encouraged to direct wild bird reports as described by Fuller to the NC Wildlife Helpline at 866-318-2401, Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., or email [email protected] or call USDA at 866-536-7593.

Sick or dying captive birds should be reported to your local veterinarian, the NCDACS Veterinary Division at 919-707-3250 or the N.C. Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory System at 919-733-3986.

For more information on HPAI, visit the NCDACS website at http://www.ncagr.gov/avianflu/.

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