CHEMUNG COUNTY, N.Y. (WENY) --  Chemung County Executive Chris Moss and County Health Director Peter Buzzetti hosted a COVID-19 virtual town hall on Facebook Live Wednesday afternoon, covering recent county updates afternoon and answered questions submitted by the community. 

County Executive Moss and Health Director Buzzetti first went over the COVID-19 numbers in the county, which lead to them discussing the spike in cases linked to the cluster at the Lighthouse Baptists Church in Horseheads.

As of Wednesday morning, Chemung County now has 57 active cases and four deaths, one being linked to the Lighthouse Baptist Church cluster.

County Executive Moss said the county had to issue the Lighthouse Baptist Church a subpoena in order to get more information about the congregants. Public Health Director Buzzetti said they are working to contact everyone who has possibly come in contact with anyone from the church.

Buzzetti said the church has not been compliant with the county or the health department, which has been slowing down the investigation. Along with the lack of compliance, the church does not have the proper documentation to help the county trace the people who have possibly been exposed.

"One of the biggest hurdles we've had is the lack of information from the church. We have not been able to do what we would consider a good investigation and we have to be more reactionary. All of the information that we have from the people we talked to and the separate complaints is separation distance wasn't followed, neither was mask use. It was left up to the individual contingent on whether or not they wanted to do that," says Peter Buzzetti. "The required documentation to be opened through the phases for this facility like others was to maintain a log for when people came into services, the date, name, address, phone number, for contact tracing.  Those were not available, those were not done by the church." 

You can watch the full Chemung County Facebook Live Town Hall video by clicking here. 

Listed below is the breakdown of topics discussed during Wednesday's Virtual Town hall. 

Lighthouse Baptist Church

  • County served a subpoena to get the contingents names at the Lighthouse Baptist Church last week
  • the more information they get faster, the easier it will be for the county to trace the spread and try to slow it down
    • no one has been fined
  • members for the church are being asked/required to quarantine
  • unsure how the cluster started, still working to gather more information
  • unclear if the cluster started at the church or at the out of county wedding
  • remember to think of others and not just yourself
  • one death now associated with this cluster

Schools

  • County Health Department has started a daily call with school districts to get the most up to date information
  • schools all turned in plans that went to the state
  • the county assisted the schools who requested help with submitting their plans
  • school openings are going okay
  • Elmira City School District started last week
  • Horseheads Central School District started this week
  • The school portal from the state is up https://schoolcovidreportcard.health.ny.gov/#/home
  • schools were asked to install MER filters if they did not already have them
  • schools had strict guidelines they had to follow to be able to open
  • no reports so far of any Chemung County schools violating protocols
  • for schools to close/go remote
    • colleges 5% or 100 active cases
  • K-12 is not specific, the local health department in charge of putting metrics in place with the school
    • key parts is how many people are in the school
  • health department will apply .5 -2% based on the situation and the number of people in the school
  • need to be able to have some room to conduct an investigation
  • will be done on a case by case basis
  • the governor opened the schools so local officials do not have the authority to close the schools
  • if there is a positive case in the school, it will move to five day a week remote learning
  • masks are not outlined as required for school gyms classes if social distancing protocols are

Enforcement hotlines complaints have gone up since the Lighthouse Baptist Church Cluster

  • complaints were slow for an amount of time and have picked up again
  • complaints mainly coming in through New York Pause – 753 received
    • quarantine violations
    • retail facial covering violations
  • reinforcing to not relax 
  • this virus is not gone
  • what we do in Chemung can affect other counties
  • wear a mask, wash your hands, follow social distancing

Clubs can not advertise live music and dancing

  • Establishments shouldn't be advertising the band or “we're going to have live music” to get people to go in there.
  • Having entertainment music, dinner music, that is permissible.
  • SAL (state liquor authority) released those guidelines for businesses that have liquor licenses
  • the governor has put together a task force, mainly down on Long Island and or New York City to cite restaurants and bars who are not following these rules
  • no dancing at bars and or weddings

County can and will force quarantine on those who refuse to do so themselves

  • have not had to force this so far

Churches

  • 50% limited capacity
  • masks are required
  • if outdoor, respect social distancing and wear your mask
  • follow public health guidelines
  • temperature taking is not mandatory, but anything in access of 100 degrees should be turned away
  • schools require 12 ft in distance for choirs, recommend same guidelines for churches
  • cleaning recommendations on CDC website

Halloween/Trick-or-Treating

  • have not made a decision yet
  • have to discuss how they can do Halloween safely
  • will look into it over the next week or so 
  • hoping to find a way to execute is safely and give out guidelines soon
  • Tagslyvania has worked with the health department for them to open
  • Bradley Farms will be submitting a plan shortly for some activities

Taking a COVID-19 Test

  • health department worried about those getting tested too early and getting false negative tests
  • should still quarantine for 14 days even after a negative test to be sure

Is wearing masks helping?

  • yes

The county is still working on visitation ideas as the weather changes for nursing homes