A test kit for COVID-19 prepared by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (photo courtesy of CDC)
N.C. government officials and tourism-related industry group leaders will host a webinar today, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., to inform businesses on the latest news and resources pertinent to the travel and tourism, hotel, and restaurant industries during the COVID-19 emergency.
The topics and speakers include:
*Overview of the N.C. economy, by N.C. Secretary of Commerce Anthony Copeland;
*State of the N.C. tourism industry, by Wit Tuttell, an executive with the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina;
*Rules and regulations regarding restaurants and lodging, by Lynn Minges, president and CEO of the N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Assn.;
*Financial assistance available for N.C. businesses, by John Loyack, also with the EDPNC;
*Unemployment and re-employment news for N.C., by Secretary Copeland.
BREAKING NEWS: The Dare County Dept. of Public Health announced its first positive COVID-19 test this morning and said the infected person is self-isolating and doing well.
The person is believed to have acquired the virus through travel or direct contact, not through community spread, according to Dr. Sheila Davies, director of the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Resources.
Wavy.com reported that the person did not use a Dare County address when tested.
The case will not be included in the case count updated daily online by the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
One person was from Cabarrus County, which is near Charlotte. The other was described as being from Virginia and traveling through North Carolina. The Cabarrus County resident was reportedly in his/her late 70s and had multiple underlying medical problems.
Mecklenburg County, in which Charlotte is located, announced a stay-at-home order yesterday that will go into effect tomorrow at 8 a.m. and stay in effect until at least midnight on April 16, according to N.C. State Sen. Jeff Jackson, who represents Mecklenburg.
ABOUT TOWN
The previously scheduled April 3 bulk-waste collection in Southern Shores has been postponed, according to an announcement on the Town website.
The Town also has updated its list of “Town Operations and Meetings” to specify that the next Town Council meeting will be held April 7, but the date is “subject to change.”
DARE COUNTY AND STATE RESOURCES
Dare County Emergency Management issued a COVID-19 bulletin yesterday that was chock-full of potentially useful state and local information for small businesspeople, parents of young children, and anyone else needing assistance during the coronavirus crisis. But you have to click on a link to access it.
Many of you may already be taking advantage of these resources because most were previously announced. Undeterred by the risk of redundancy, however, The Beacon offers the following highlights to facilitate online searching:
Businesses and Employees
The Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina has compiled a list of extensive resources, both state and federal, that are available to assist businesses and employees through the pandemic. See https://edpnc.com/nc-business-relief-resources-covid-19/.
All Dare County children up to the age of 18 can receive breakfast and lunch at no cost, Monday through Friday, at area locations, including the Kitty Hawk Elementary School.
Breakfast is served from 7:45 a.m. to 8:45 a.m., and lunch is served from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The main meal site locations are Manteo, First Flight, and Cape Hatteras elementary schools. But there also are community locations, the closest of which for Southern Shores residents are the KHES, Daniels Home Import, and the Belk Center in Kill Devil Hills.
Many area utilities are making payment and late-fee exceptions during the crisis.
Dominion Energy has announced that it will not shut off power due to nonpayment, and it will reconnect service for residential customers whose services were shut off. If you are facing financial difficulties, you may be eligible for short-term payment extensions, long-term payment assistance, or energy assistance. Contact Dominion Energy.
Spectrum has announced that it will not terminate service for 60 days (March 16-May 16) for residential or small business customers who face difficult economic circumstances. It also will not charge late fees to those customers facing COVID-19-relatd difficulties.
Free Spectrum broadband and Wi-Fi access is available for the same 60 days to households with K-12 and/or college students who do not already have a Spectrum broadband subscription at any service level up to 100 Mbps. To enroll, call 844-488-8395. Installation fees will be waived for new student households.
Verizon is also waiving late fees from March 16 to May 16, and will not terminate the service of a customer who has been adversely affected by events involving the coronavirus. Customers experiencing a hardship should call the Verizon customer service team to discuss their situation and available options.
CenturyLink, too, is waiving late fees and not terminating residential or small business customers’ service due to COVID-19 financial circumstances. It is also suspending data usage limits for consumer customers during this time period.
Refunds Due Vacation Home Renters
The N.C. Real Estate Commission has determined that landlords and brokers must refund all monies paid by vacation property tenants for rental weeks affected by the closure of access to the Outer Banks.
Advised by the N.C. Attorney General’s Office, the Commission has interpreted the N.C. Vacation Rental Act to require landlords and brokers to refund all tenant monies when “access to [a vacation] property cannot be provided.”
The Commission states: “In those instances where the real estate broker may have legally disbursed up to fifty percent of the rent received to the owner as provided [by the Vacation Rental Act] the broker must return the funds the broker continues to hold in their trust account to the tenant. Similarly, the landlord, and not the broker, is responsible for returning to the tenant the money the landlord received as an advanced disbursement. A landlord who refuses to return money to a tenant may be subject to a civil suit by the tenant.”
The Beacon urges vacation property owners who are affected by the Commission’s decision to contact their brokers if they have not already heard from them.
Governor Roy Cooper’s latest executive order, No. 120, which takes effect at 5 p.m. Wednesday, closes “entertainment facilities without a retail or dining component” and “personal care and grooming businesses.” (See the text of the executive order, below.)
The shutdown of these businesses is in effect for 30 days, unless the order is rescinded or superseded.
According to the executive order, examples of such entertainment facilities include, but are not limited to:
*Bingo parlors, including bingo sites operated by charitable organizations.
*Bowling alleys
*Indoor exercise facilities (such as gyms, yoga studios, martial arts facilities, indoor trampoline and rock climbing facilities)
*Health clubs
*Indoor/outdoor pools
*Live performance venues
*Movie theaters
*Skating rinks
*Spas
*Gaming and establishments that allow gaming activities (e.g., video poker, sweepstakes, video games, arcade games, pinball machines or other computer, electronic or mechanical devices played for amusement)
Executive Order 120 also restricts “personal care and grooming businesses,” in which “individuals are in close proximity for extended periods of time, or service personnel are in direct contact with clients,” including, but not limited to:
*Barber shops
*Beauty salons (including waxing and hair removal centers)
*Hair salons
*Nail salons/manicure/pedicure providers
*Massage parlors
*Tattoo parlors
Sadly, but understandably, Executive Order 120 also prevents all visitors and non-essential health care personnel from visiting people residing in long-term care facilities, except for “certain compassionate care situations, for example, an end-of-life situation.”
Many such facilities already have restricted visitation to protect their residents who, because of senescent (aging) immune systems and/or underlying medical conditions are more vulnerable to COVID-19.
The restriction on mass gatherings applies to events or other forms of “convening” that bring together more than 50 people in a single room or single space at the same time, such as an auditorium, arena, or meeting hall, or “any other confined indoor or outdoor space.” This includes “parades, fairs and festivals.”
Governor Roy Cooper announced today that he has extended the closure of K-12 public schools in North Carolina through May 15 and has ordered hair and nail salons, gyms, health clubs, movie theaters, and other close-contact businesses to close by 5 p.m. Wed., March 25.
The Governor also banned mass gatherings of 50 people or more (down from 100).
OBX Today is also reporting that Dare County Health and Human Services and Vidant Health, which operates the Outer Banks Hospital, declined to release the number of tests performed locally, citing patient privacy. The fact that no one has tested positive for COVID-19 in Dare County may be mostly a function of the number of people who have been tested.
The Governor acknowledged today that a “lack of supplies” from the federal government has delayed the processing of COVID-19 tests in North Carolina.
There are now confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 45 of the state’s 100 counties.
The Beacon will update this post as more news becomes available.
Those of you who are on Facebook may wish to check out the Facebook page of N.C. State Senator Jeff Jackson, of Mecklenburg County, who regularly updates State action related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Dare County Emergency Management continues to encourage all citizens to respect “social distancing” and allow six feet between themselves and other people. There is no word yet on mandatory sheltering in place.
As of Wednesday, CNN reported today, 39 percent of the U.S. population–spread out in 12 states–will be subject to stay-at-home orders.
A beachtime Saturday in Southern Shores during spring break never looked like this before. (Photo by Andrew Darling)
I would like to revisit my response last week to the sudden news that the Southern Shores Town Council had scheduled a special meeting Friday to amend its Rules of Procedure. Because of time restraints, my response was not as coherent, well-researched, and thoughtful as I strive to be, and I would like to rectify that today.
I frankly was stunned that our elected officials thought it advisable to have a person-to-person meeting during a public-health emergency that is not only townwide, but countywide, statewide, and nationwide, in order to conduct business that was neither urgent not critical. The virus that causes COVID-19 is highly contagious, and we do not know yet how the Outer Banks will fare.
I described the decision to conduct this business during these uncertain and stressful times as arrogant. I think now it may be better described as uninformed and poorly reasoned.
Ask yourself: What sense would it make for Town officials to be compelled to meet in order to cancel a meeting in a declared state of emergency? During a global viral pandemic, no less?
I regret that I may have unfairly maligned what may have been good intentions, however (in my view) misguided. I appreciate that the Town Council is navigating uncharted waters without any paddles, including one that an experienced town manager would provide.
What I would say to Mayor Tom Bennett and our four Town Council members is this: If it looks like a bad idea to hold a public meeting, regardless of what you believe the Rules say, it is a bad idea. Don’t do it. And if you have any doubt, seek the opinion of Town Attorney Ben Gallop or one of his firm colleagues.
I would be very surprised if Mr. Gallop was consulted in the Council’s decision to hold last Friday’s non-emergency special meeting. But if he was, I respectfully disagree with any conclusion that led the way to the meeting being held.
MEETING WAS NOT ESSENTIAL
On the morning of Thursday, March 18, I had an exchange of emails with Town Councilman Jim Conners, who contacted me about publishing information regarding supermarkets and pharmacies that are providing pickups and deliveries. I applaud Mr. Conners for this community service. Town Hall should follow his example.
During our exchange, I asked the Councilman why the Council had decided to go ahead with the March 24 budget workshop session, which had been noticed on the Town website. At the time I knew of no other local government bodies that were holding in-person public meetings during the 15 days in March that the President’s coronavirus task force had identified as the critical containment period for COVID-19.
Although Governor Roy Cooper has not imposed a stay-at-home order on North Carolina, infectious disease specialists nationwide have been advising people to shelter at home and only go out for essential items, such as groceries and prescription drugs.
Why would the Town Council hold an ill-advised, nonessential meeting that, frankly, conveys a minimization of the threat posed by the public-health crisis we’re in?
In part, Mr. Conners replied: “Discussions are underway now on whether it’s more prudent to cancel the 3/24 meeting and defer all agenda items to the regularly scheduled April meeting. I think we should cancel it, but if they have it, I’d attend.” (Mr. Conners may have changed his mind about attending since last Thursday.)
Mr. Conners made no mention of the possibility of a special meeting. With his comments as background for me, I was all the more surprised that Mayor Bennett apparently signed an order later that same day to schedule the Friday meeting.
I did not see an online meeting notice when I checked the website at the close of business on the 18th. It was Thursday when I first saw it, and I had to make a snap decision as to how to treat it: Ignore it or wing it.
I winged it. I emailed The Beacon advisory board to solicit opinions, and Geri Sullivan graciously replied.
Background information about the meeting from Interim Town Manager Wes Haskett, Town Clerk Sheila Kane, and/or Mayor Bennett would have been extremely helpful, but the Town rarely prioritizes the dissemination of public information. It would still be helpful now, and I respectfully request it.
It would be a service to Town residents if one of the three just-named individuals would summarize the decisions that came out of the special meeting in several easy-to-read paragraphs. Residents should not be forced to watch a videotape. The Southern Shores Town website has too many links, as it is, and not enough staff-prepared news releases. Surely Mr. Haskett has a little extra time now.
I admit to viewing the meeting notice, which the so-called “meeting packet” posted later reproduced verbatim (what was the point of that?), with some suspicion. What possible urgency could there be in the three meeting agenda items, which were described as:
Cancel the previously scheduled March 24, 2020 budget work session;
Consideration of amendments to the Council’s Rules of Procedure allowing for cancellation or rescheduling (with appropriate notice) of meetings by the Mayor or any two Council Members during declared emergencies; and
Consideration of adoption of a policy for managing meetings with electronic participation of Council Members.
The notice further stated under an item described as “Council Deliberation” that “Council may take action on matters within the purview of the Purpose of the Special Meeting.” Such as?
I have learned in covering meetings of the “new” Town Council since last December that deliberations among members are occurring behind-the-scenes in non-public settings, and decisions reached by them are being presented to the public at open meetings without the public learning much about their deliberations. This is not my idea of openness nor do I believe it is the proper means to reach consensus.
I have no doubt that a majority of the Town Council (five members) is not gathering together at any time or place to confer nor is it engaging in simultaneous communication by “conference telephone or other electronic means,” so as to violate the State open meeting laws and the Council’s own open meeting policy. But I do believe that the Council is violating both the State’s and its own policy (Section 2 of the Rules of Procedure) in not conducting “deliberations” openly.
Hence, I have grown suspicious.
MY TAKE: JUST DO IT
If someone had asked me if the Mayor or Town Council could cancel a previously scheduled meeting during a time of crisis without amending the Rules of Procedure, I would have said: Of course. Just do it!
Rules and laws are not meant to be obstacles to protecting public health, safety, and welfare—especially during a declared emergency.
I find authority for canceling and/or postponing Town meetings in the Rules of Procedure as they are currently written, but I do not believe it is necessary to resort or defer to the Rules.
State law gives North Carolina counties and cities within those counties independent legal authority to declare a state of emergency and to impose emergency restrictions and prohibitions within their respective jurisdictions. (See N.C. Gen. Statutes 166A-19.22(b)).
Indeed, in the editorial that Dr. Michael Waldrum, who is CEO of Vidant Health, and Dr. Mark Stacy, who is Dean of the Brody School of Medicine, submitted to OBX Today, they call on “local officials throughout eastern North Carolina and the state to take more decisive action in response to this crisis to include making the bold and right decision to ask North Carolinians to shelter in place.
“This means,” they say, “staying close to home as much as possible and only going out if absolutely necessary, such as buying groceries or picking up medications. This is the right thing to do to save lives and is the right thing for our long-term economic interests.”
After the Mayor declared a state of emergency in Southern Shores on March 16, the Town issued a list of restrictions and prohibitions pertinent to government operations, among them the closure of both Town Hall and the Police Department building to the public. This list could have been amended—without the holding of a special meeting—to include the cancellation or indefinite postponement of all Town Council meetings until further notice, or something similar.
Instead, the wording of the meetings provision in the March 16 restrictions on government operations is confusing, indecisive, and weak. It makes no mention of Town Council meetings, only “meetings of all appointed Town advisory boards, commissions and committees,” which it specifies will be “modified to reduce vulnerability of people and property.”
The notice does not address the form such “modification” may take, and the idea that modifications may be sufficient to combat the spread of the virus strikes me as incredibly simplistic and ill-conceived.
A revised list of restrictions, apparently drafted March 21, now includes the sentence: “The March 24, 2020 budget work session meeting has been cancelled.”
This could have been accomplished without the staging of the special meeting.
As for the Rules, I find authority for canceling a Town Council meeting in the sections about quorum—you cannot have a meeting without one—and about the office of Mayor. In the latter section, the Rules specify that “The Mayor shall have the power to . . . (e) Adjourn in an emergency.”
I believe this language could be broadly interpreted to give the Mayor authority to “adjourn” an upcoming meeting by canceling it. It’s not an unassailable interpretation, but it is a defensible one, especially in a public-health emergency like the one we are facing. And who would challenge the Town on such an argument?
Now that I have had time to read some of other nearby towns’ Rules of Procedure–they’re all based on the same original source–I can appreciate that those in Southern Shores need updating and revising, but that task did not need to happen last Friday.
I trust it was not legal advice that compelled the Mayor and Town Council to believe a meeting was imperative. Legal minds are usually more imaginative and less rigid than that.
DEVELOPING A POLICY ON ELECTRONIC MEETINGS
I also had some concern about the Town Council hastily drafting and adopting a policy for “managing meetings with electronic participation of Council Members” during a declared emergency, instead of more thoughtfully preparing a policy, with due diligence, during a time of normalcy.
I strongly believe that the public, especially those who have technological expertise, should contribute to any discussion about such a policy.
The current Rules of Procedure provide for an official meeting of the Council to occur by “conference telephone of other electronic means of a majority” of members. (Section 2(c).) “Other electronic means” is very broad.
As I reported 3/19/20, N.C. law already permits a public body to hold a meeting by “telephone or videoconferencing,” as long as it provides a location and a way for the public to listen to the meeting. (The public body may charge each member of the public a fee (maximum of $25) to defray the cost of providing a location and equipment.) See N.C. Gen. Stat. sec. 143-318.13(a).
This statute, which was enacted in 1979, clearly has limited application to our current emergency situation. Nonetheless, I believe it would be incorrect to view it as an obstacle to achieving the desired aim of conducting essential Town business publicly at this time. That would be an unreasonable and foolish conclusion.
Governor Roy Cooper has been suspending the operation of State law almost on a daily basis with the executive orders he has issued—starting with closing public schools K-12 statewide. The Governor is not going to abandon municipal governments during the spring fiscal-year budget season, nor is he going to disadvantage taxpayers. Economic recovery is going to be a key component of how the State emerges from this unprecedented public-health emergency.
I would encourage Mr. Haskett and Southern Shores Town Finance Officer Bonnie Swain to reach out to their counterparts in Duck, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, and Nags Head to learn how they envision going forward with public town meetings. Duck and Nags Head are usually ahead of the curve. What are they thinking about doing?
Calls to our state legislative representatives would not hurt, either.
I also believe the Town should publish on the website the policy, if any, the three Town Council members who met last Friday adopted.
It was not my intention last week to make governance more difficult for our elected officials during this unusual and hazardous time. But I also view The Beacon’s role as that of a watchdog. Usually, however, I take more time to chew on things.
I conclude by saying that I question whether our elected officials and Town staff know how to be crisis managers. In a crisis, you need to let go of preconceived expectations and plans. You need to be able to think rationally and quickly and to adjust to changing circumstances in a short period of time. There is no business as usual.
In a crisis, you largely live in the moment, analyzing the evidence that you have before you. You do not make assumptions.
The “virus is moving much faster than we normally make decisions,” write Drs. Waldrum and Stacy, observing that “The data are clear: it has started to impact [eastern North Carolina] and the problem continues to grow.”
“We know the story and outcome if we do nothing more,” they say, “—we see it on the news and on social media every day. We know from history that bold and definitive actions can change the course for the better. . . .
“Community members must encourage the political bodies to be decisive, take action now and then support them. . . . We are confident we can flatten the curve. However, we must all stand up together, as one community, to get through this crisis.”
No sooner had The Beacon posted its last update than we got word that Hyde County officials have determined that the person they earlier reported as having tested coronavirus-positive actually lives in another county, where he or she has been isolating. The person apparently has more than one address and used his/her Hyde County address when he/she was tested. In fact, the person has not traveled to Hyde County nor had any contact with people living in Hyde County.
BREAKING NEWS: Hyde County announced today its first confirmed case of COVID-19, according to OBX Today. Hyde County, which includes Ocracoke Island, has not identified where the infected person is located. It has only said that he or she is in isolation, and that the county is tracing all close contacts the person has had.
***
JUST A FEW SCIENTIFIC FACTS . . .
As you all know by now, a coronavirus is a category of virus that is so named because it is covered with crown-like spikes, like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s ubiquitous illustration above.
The new coronavirus that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2, for short. COVID-19 is the respiratory illness that SARS-CoV-2 causes.
SARS-CoV-1, which emerged in China in 2002, is the human coronavirus most closely related to SARS-CoV-2.
SARS-CoV-1 infected over 8,000 people in 2002 and 2003, but it was contained before reaching anything approaching the spread of SARS-CoV-2. It was known simply as SARS. Eventually, its origin was confirmed to be zoonotic (animal to human)—traced to a family of bats commonly known as horseshoe bats.
You may have heard about Middle East respiratory syndrome, called “MERS,” which is caused by a betacoronavirus, which is a genus of the coronavirus.
MERS-CoV emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012, and it, too, derives from bats. Camels are believed to be involved in the spread of MERS-CoV to humans, but it is not clear how.
Unlike SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV is not readily transmitted from human-to-human. MERS transmission typically occurs only after close contact with severely ill people. There have been outbreaks of MERS on the Arabian Peninsula and in South Korea since 2012, but they have been contained.
The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19, which you may be reading about these days, was caused by a subtype of the influenza A virus, known as H1N1 influenza virus. A new strain of swine-origin H1N1 virus caused the swine flu outbreak of 2009.
The Spanish flu—apparently so-named because Spain was reporting news of the outbreak, when other nations were not—was an unusually severe and deadly strain of avian (bird) influenza.
Other facts that have been reported in the medical literature include:
CELL ENTRY: The new coronavirus binds to target human cells through the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor.
A receptor is a protein molecule in a cell or on a cell that functions as a lock or gateway. The S protein of SARS-CoV-2 acts as a key to unlock the receptor and enter the cell. (And that is as far as I will go with protein biochemistry.)
Receptors bind with substances such as hormones, neurotransmitters, drugs, and antigens (toxic substances), including viruses.
SARS-CoV-1 also entered the cell through the same receptor.
Some of you may recognize the angiotensin-converting enzyme (“ACE”) because you take an ACE-inhibitor for high blood pressure and/or other heart-related conditions. This enzyme is part of your body’s renin-angiotensin system, which regulates blood pressure and otherwise acts to maintain homeostasis, which you may think of as an equilibrium in your physiological processes.
According to The New England Journal of Medicine’s (NEJM) “Journal Watch” of medical news about SARS-CoV-1:
“High risk for severe COVID-19 disease has been assumed to be driven largely by waning innate immunity that comes with advanced age, but younger patients with cardiovascular disease or hypertension may have unappreciated risk.”
INCUBATION TIME: The mean incubation time for COVID-19 is about five to six days, according to a study published March 10 in The Annals of Internal Medicine.
The authors studied the case records of 181 patients who had visited Wuhan, China, or been in contact with an infected person before becoming symptomatic and testing positive for COVID-19 between Jan. 4 and Feb. 24, 2020. Fewer than 2.5 percent of these patients experienced COVID-19 symptoms within 2.2 days of exposure to the new coronavirus. Within 11.5 days of exposure, 97.5 percent of them were symptomatic.
These findings confirm the CDC’s current guidelines for quarantine.
According to the authors, the virus is “highly contagious” and is “primarily spread by droplets.” It is now well-known that asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic people can transmit the infection.
COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION: A community transmission of the virus is said to occur when the source of the infection is not known. The N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services announced last week the first case in North Carolina of a community transmission of COVID-19. The person lives in Wilson, N.C., and is in isolation.
Community transmissions make the containment of the viral infection much more difficult. These are people diagnosed with the virus who are not in a high-risk area and have not been known to have any contact with other confirmed cases.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, remains The Beacon’s source for reliable information and trustworthy advice during this viral outbreak. (In my earlier life as a medical book author, I had the pleasure of communicating with Dr. Fauci, a brilliant physician-scientist and a kind and personable man.)
But Dr. Emily Landon, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Chicago medical school, made quite a splash yesterday at a news conference with her straightforward, clear, and urgent appeal to people to stay home. You may read about Dr. Landon’s address and hear some of it here:
Illinois is one of three states that have imposed stay-at-home orders on their populations. The others are New York and California. (Update 3/22/20: Connecticut and New Jersey also have imposed such orders.)
The checkpoint just past the Wright Memorial Bridge on Hwy. 158 in Kitty Hawk. (Photo by Kari Pugh of OBX Today.)
Non-resident property owners are prohibited from entering Dare County and the Currituck County Outer Banks, starting tonight (Friday) at 10.
The Dare County Control Group decided to invoke this further restriction on visitors after meeting this evening to receive an update on COVID-19. Currituck County followed suit by amending its declaration of emergency to extend its visitor prohibition to restrict non-resident property owners.
This new measure is being taken in order to reduce “the number of individuals in the county and ultimately [reduce] potential virus spread and the burden on our healthcare system,” according to COVID-19 Bulletin #10 of the Dare County Emergency Management.
Previous restrictions on mass gatherings and visitor entry remain in place.
SOUTHERN SHORESTOWN COUNCIL MEETING CANCELED
The Southern Shores Town Council canceled its March 24 workshop meeting session today, presumably at a special meeting it held at 3 p.m.
The Beacon will not report on today’s Council special meeting, which you may view on a videotape accessible through the Town website homepage. We will tell you that only Mayor Tom Bennett, Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Morey, and Councilman Matt Neal attended for the Town Council, and that Interim Town Manager Wes Haskett and Town Clerk Sheila Kane were also present.
The Beacon believes that the holding of a public meeting like this one solely for the purpose of voting upon business that members of the Council have already deliberated upon and decided, outside the purview of public scrutiny, makes a mockery of open meeting laws. Our current state of emergency did not justify the Council’s actions.
At the very least, the so-called “meeting packet” that was posted online hours before the meeting should have contained the exact language that the three Council members planned to approve.
The Beacon also does not believe this meeting should have been held. We are in a critical containment period with the coronavirus, and all infectious disease experts are advising Americans to “shelter in place” now.
INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE TAX FILING DATE EXTENDED
The Internal Revenue Service has extended the tax return filing deadline, as well as the tax payment deadline, as The Beacon reported yesterday, to July 15.
In an extraordinary move, Southern Shores Mayor Tom Bennett has called a special meeting of the Town Council tomorrow at 3 p.m. in the Pitts Center in order to cancel the previously scheduled March 24 budget workshop session and to consider adopting a policy that would allow the Town Council to meet electronically.
In a notice posted to the Town website today, but dated and signed by the Mayor yesterday, the purpose of the special meeting is further described as being to consider amending the Town Council’s Rules of Procedure so that either the Mayor alone or any two Council members can cancel or reschedule a meeting during a declared emergency.
That the Mayor would schedule an in-person meeting during the 15-day period that President Trump has asked all citizens to avoid social gatherings of 10 people or more is shocking to The Beacon. It conveys to us a lack of respect for the seriousness of the situation we are all facing and a sense of privilege—that Southern Shores does not have to play by the same rules. See the President’s guidelines, “15 Days to Slow the Spread,” at https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03.16.20_coronavirus-guidance_8.5x11_315PM.pdf.
Last Sunday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that meetings of more than 50 people be canceled or postponed during the next eight weeks. The next day, President Trump issued a recommendation that the number be lowered to 10—until March 31.
This inconsistency between the nation’s highest public-health agency and the White House coronavirus task force is enough to give us pause. Just what does the scientific evidence show?
For weeks, public-health officials have been recommending “social distancing,” encouraging people to maintain a distance of six feet between themselves and others. The transmission of the new coronavirus is not fully understood yet. Any gathering of people should be viewed as an opportunity for viral transmission to occur.
To be safe, we believe municipalities should observe the task force’s recommendations about COVID-19 protection at least until the end of the month—at which time, all recommendations can be reevaluated in light of all new evidence. That the Southern Shores Town Council has chosen to disregard the task force’s advice strikes The Beacon as imprudent and arrogant. Although the health risk to meeting attendees may appear slight to the Mayor, it nonetheless exists.
N.C. law already permits a public body to hold a meeting by “telephone or videoconferencing,” as long as it provides a location and a way for the public to listen to the meeting. The public body may charge each member of the public a fee (maximum of $25) to defray the cost of providing a location and equipment. See N.C. Gen. Stat. sec. 143-318.13(a).
That there is no mention in the Mayor’s notice of how the Town Council would preserve public access to its meetings—which is required by State law—if it were to conduct them electronically, concerns The Beacon. A meeting of elected officials that does not allow the public access and a meaningful opportunity to comment cannot be held.
Of course, the Town Council knows this, and, yet, it is meeting tomorrow to formulate and adopt a policy for electronic meetings in a declared emergency without first hearing from the public. It is highly unlikely that many residents/property owners will attend tomorrow’s meeting. Not only have they been given inadequate notice–one day on the website, at best–they have been placed in the untenable position of possibly risking exposure to the coronavirus if they do attend.
Rather than rush to judgment tomorrow, the Town Council should plan thoughtfully how the Town can solicit opinions from residents/property owners about meetings by electronic means and investigate the available enabling technology, and then offer residents a choice. (What are the Council’s options in light of N.C. Gen. Stat. sec. 143-318.13(a)? The Council cannot contravene N.C. statute.)
If the past is any indication, however, The Beacon suspects that the policy will already have been written by 3 p.m. tomorrow and will be read into the public record as a motion that will be unanimously approved.
The Beacon believes the Mayor is making an error in judgment in calling this special meeting. We also believe it is premature to consider holding Town Council meetings that are neither urgent nor critical by electronic means.
The Beacon further believes that the Mayor, who unilaterally declares a state of emergency, should not be given unilateral authority to cancel or reschedule a Town Council meeting during an emergency. This represents too much consolidated power for a Mayor in a council-manager form of government. If the authority to cancel or reschedule a meeting is delegated to two Council members, their decision should only be effective with the consent of the Town Manager.
The postponement of the March 24 workshop meeting is an inconvenience. The business on its agenda will hold.
The Beacon reached out to Geri Sullivan, who is on our editorial board and is a former candidate for Town Council, about the possibility of the Council holding meetings remotely. Ms. Sullivan emailed the following thoughtful response:
“I think there could be instances, e.g., emergency meetings to deal with issues during this health crisis via electronic meetings. However, certain items, like budget approval, tax rate increases, non-emergency budget amendments or project approvals, etc., or changes to ordinances should not be addressed during these meetings.
“We should realize that this current health crisis could go on for several months, and our town may have to deal with a number of issues that can’t wait for an open public meeting. Since the town needs to come up with a budget for spending, could they not provide for a three-month budget at the current spending level and extend on a month-to- month basis until it is safe to resume open public meetings?
“Also, is there a way people could dial in (or view online) these meetings while they are occurring? And provide access to an online recording available, just like we broadcast current meetings? And also the public should be notified in advance of such meetings, so they can provide written comments and/or phone in comments during the meeting.”
Ms. Sullivan concludes that a policy for using electronic meetings should be defined to cover only special emergency circumstances, and not normal operations.
In a recently released study of 2,143 COVID-19 pediatric patients in China, researchers at the Shanghai Children’s Medical Center report that 90 percent of children either confirmed or suspected of being infected had “mild” or “moderate” disease, the former often characterized by cold-like symptoms, such as a runny nose.
In the interest of disseminating credible and useful information about COVID-19, The Beacon reports the following recent news:
Researchers at the Shanghai Children’s Medical Center have determined in a retrospective study of 2,143 pediatric patients with either confirmed or suspected COVID-19 that coronavirus infections in children are generally less severe than in adults.
They also raise concern about the vulnerability of very young children, especially infants, and U.S. physicians commenting on their study data suggest that children may play a “major role” in spreading the pandemic virus.
The researchers list a number of limitations in their study, the most critical one, we believe, being that 1,412 patients–or 65.9 percent of the total patients studied–were only suspected of having COVID-19. The infections of the other 731 patients were confirmed by laboratory testing.
The majority of the children with severe or critical illness were in the suspected group, not the confirmed group, raising the possibility that they may have had other respiratory infections than COVID-19.
The 2,143 children that the researchers studied ranged in age from newborn to 18, with a median age of 7. They report that more than 90 percent of the children had “mild” or “moderate” suspected or confirmed COVID-19 disease or were even asymptomatic.
The majority of the cases considered “mild” had typical cold-like symptoms, including “fever, fatigue, myalgia, cough, sore throat, runny nose, and sneezing.” But some of these patients, the researchers report, had no fever and only digestive symptoms, such as “nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.”
Children with “moderate” infection had pneumonia with “frequent fever and cough,” usually a dry cough, followed by a productive (wetter) cough. Some had wheezing, but no obvious shortness of breath.
Only 5 percent of the children had severe infections, which began with respiratory symptoms such as fever and cough, sometimes accompanied by gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea. After one week, the children had more difficulty breathing. Those who became “critical” quickly progressed to acute respiratory distress or respiratory failure and “may also have shock, encephalopathy, . . . heart failure, . . . and acute kidney injury,” the researchers report. One 14-year-old boy died.
A group of seven infants—11 percent of the total number of infants—and two children ages 1 to 5—15 percent of the total—progressed to critical condition, which suggested to the researchers that very young children and infants are more vulnerable than older children.
According to a commentary by physician-editors of Pediatrics, which The Washington Post reported, the study suggests that “children may play a major role in community-based viral transmission.” Their runny noses and gastrointestinal symptoms may make them more contagious.
“Prolonged shedding in nasal secretions and stool has substantial implications for community spread in day-care centers, schools, and in the home,” write Dr. Andrea Cruz, a pediatrician at the Baylor College of Medicine, and Dr. Steve Zeichner, a University of Virginia immunologist.
The one clear takeaway from the study—remember, it is only ONE study, and it has its limitations—is that the new coronavirus causes severe disease across the age spectrum. Children are not immune, as some earlier reports seemed to suggest.
IRS OFFERS TAX RELIEF
The Internal Revenue Service is offering taxpayers an extension of the tax payment deadline from April 15 to July 15. The IRS has not changed the income tax filing deadline. You must still file your return by April 15, but you may defer payment of your tax until July 15.
The IRS has established a special section for “Coronavirus Tax Relief,” which you may access here:
The N.C. Dept. of Revenue has given notice that it will provide penalty relief to taxpayers affected by COVID-19 who cannot meet their filing or payment deadlines. To obtain this relief, you must fill out a “Request to Waive Penalties” form (NC-5500). For more details, see: https://files.nc.gov/ncdor/documents/files/2020-3-17-Important-Notice-COVID.pdf
CORONAVIRUS HOTLINES
For information about COVID-19, especially its symptoms, you may call:
Dare County COVID-19 Hotline: (252) 475-5008
N.C. Coronavirus Hotline: (866) 462-3821
The Beacon welcomes emails about community news related to the coronavirus shutdown that you would like to share. Please email us at ssbeaconeditor@gmail.com.
The Southern Shores Beacon 