Top doctors develop a new plan to help Fresno County fight COVID-19

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Fresno County now has a new action plan to control the spread of the coronavirus, developed with the help of a State Strike Team.

Now the real work begins.

County public health leaders now must implement several recommendations.

CAL/OSHA is currently in town guiding them.

"To help make sure that we are getting the right resources to those folks, we think that is a big piece of this," said public health director David Pomaville.

The plan includes educating Ag workers, making testing more accessible and adding contact tracers.

A hospital infection team will also be making their way to Fresno County to assess the alternate care site at the Convention Center.

"They will review how it is laid out and make any recommendations with regard to potential infection control measures that we could put in place," said Dr. Rais Vohra, interim Health Officer for Fresno County.

The White House Coronavirus Task Force is also asking for something at the state level.

They want rapid testing at nursing homes and long term care facilities at the first sign of an outbreak.

"The advantage of that is that it can give a result in about 15-20 minutes. That is at least what the company's brochure says," said Vohra.

According to Vohra, the Public Health Department is currently only using traditional testing.

Those tests take days to return results, but they're more accurate.

Rapid or Antigen testing is a little tricky.

"They have to get that Antigen testing done in the first five days of developing symptoms," he said.

Vohra said some Fresno County nursing homes are waiting to receive rapid tests.

He adds they will have a public report on the State Strike Team's recommendations soon.