Our restaurants are doing a great job with takeout and delivery. I'd like to make a STRONG suggestion. Please do what you can to eliminate the need for costumers to come into you place of business. Please post your phone number at the door with a sign saying, "If you are here for pickup please call us and we will bring it out to you."
In addition, and I'm completely unfamiliar with how credit cards work at the back end, please take credit card info over the phone as opposed to touching the card, to prevent another means of passing the virus.
I have ZERO power to order this but please please please comply. If you are a costumer ask the restaurant to follow this procedure.
Essential retail outlets that take phone or online orders, please do the same.
A caveat to customers, don't give your credit card number to someone who calls you. Only give it out when you initiated the call.
We can get through this together.
There are 19 more positive tests in Franklin reported today with no new deaths: 74 year old, 85 year old, 72 year old, 85 year old, 64 year old, 44 year old, 55 year old, 19 year old, 56 year old, 25 year old, 60 year old, 61 year old, 41 year old, 51 year old, 74 year old, 33 year old, 49 year old, 38 year old, 48 year old
The Franklin total is now 87 positives with 2 deaths.
The County is showing us as a total of 84. Discrepancies exist because of posting time vs reporting time.
Total County positives is 405 with 11 deaths. See the map
I am frequently asked what the locations are of the positives. Here is one exchange slightly edited to protect the privacy of the sender (and to correct grammaticals error on my part)….
Is the mayor planning to give us more information such as where to avoid in town? Can they at least tell us the places they have been (publicly) have been sanitized? Were these people all from the same family? They don't need to tell us private information, but they should at least be more forthcoming. There needs to be a balance between not violating HIPAA and giving the public more info. Watching the numbers go up everyday without showing us it is under control only causes more panic. Give us some more info other than the basic cleanliness message... As I work in the Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery sector, I like you are busy responding to this for my healthcare/govt/finance/banking customers everyday. And the name of the game to alleviate panic is to show you are in control and provide information...
Here is my response:Mr. XXXXXXX thank you for writing. I assume, by providing information on places to avoid, you mean places where people have been who are infected. If that is what you mean then, no, I will not provide information regarding places to avoid in town, other than to say you should stay home as much as possible and avoid places where people congregate.
One reason is I am not provided that information. It flatly, by law, is not available to me. The plain truth is 4 times more people are infected with no or mild symptoms than have symptoms. So knowing where people who have tested positive are would give a false sense of security and might lead some to let their guard down when in other places.
Given that, I will repeat my mantra.
"Assume everyone you encounter is infected and could infect you. When you encounter someone assume you are infected and could infect them." The more people take this to heart the sooner we will get through this. I to want people to be calm, but I also want them to take proper precautions. So again, while I do not have that information and can't get it, giving it out if I had it would, I believe, be detrimental to public safety.
That being said, your question regarding spread within families has come up and I believe the answer is of some use to the general public. I have no doubt it has happen and I will continue to press to get that information. I don't know if I will succeed.
The response was: Thank you for this feedback. I appreciate it. I responded: Thank you for understanding buddy. I know it's frustrating. We are in this together.I have covered this several times. I’m trusting the County Health Officer will let me know when I need to know. While your questions on this are understandable, regrettably I just don’t have the time to respond each time it is asked. Apologies.
Update: Regarding the analysis of family clusters, Franklin and several other towns use the County as its health department . Most towns however have their own health department. Each health department reports directly to the State, which is the only entity that could do the analysis. I do not have that report and it is not likely I will be able to communicate with the State at that level. They are pretty busy...