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Today Dr. Teresa Frankovich, Humboldt County’s public health officer, again answered questions from local media about the COVID-19 pandemic and Humboldt County’s ongoing response to it.

Questions include:

• Can you tell us if the two positive cases announced yesterday were related to the group that had traveled to a different country? (0:00)
• Do you intend on extending the shelter-in-place order, or closing the county’s borders to non-residents? (0:30)
• How many ventilators are available in Humboldt County at this time? (1:30)
• Are we working to acquire more ventilators? Are we considering sending equipment to places in greater need? (2:30)
• Will the county mandate stricter shelter-in-place restrictions if the virus continues to spread locally? (3:00)
• Is it possible for the county to track down all the passengers who were on those three flights of concern? (3:50)
• Why are you unable to provide more demographic specificity about the local people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19? (5:20)
• What is your biggest priority in preparing for coronavirus right now? (7:30)
• How are you reassigning staff right now? (8:40)
• Why is it taking so long to determine whether certain cases are due to community spread? (9:40)
• Can you ask people to waive some portion of their HIPAA rights in order to provide information that would be helpful to the community? (10:50)