HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – The Hill County Health Board held a virtual meeting on Friday afternoon to provide their weekly COVID-19 update.
Health Officer Kim Larson says after several weeks of declining case numbers, the rate of new cases is starting to increase again.
“That’s not a big surprise that we’re seeing those cases. We’ve had a few from Christmas parties and we’ve had a few from work exposures as well, when people go to work sick.”
When it comes to COVID-19 vaccinations, Larson says they are nearly done with vaccinating those in Phase 1A with the first dose of the Moderna vaccine. They have enough supply to give those residents the second dose, which is taken 28 days after the first.
“The state has been very good at that. When they send out a first allocation of doses, they already have that second allocation that matches those first doses set aside. So nobody will be without their second dose.”
An exact number of Hill County residents that have been inoculated is not currently available.
There is no exact timetable on when they will receive vaccines for residents in the Phase 1B category. Once they do receive the vaccine, which they hope will be within a few weeks, they are planning on setting up a clinic at the Holiday Village Mall to safely administer it.
The requirements for Phase 1B recently changed under Governor Greg Gianforte’s direction to exclude many frontline essential workers such as teachers. Larson says they were not notified of the change until Gianforte announced it at a press conference earlier this week.
“We had a plan in place and had contacted a lot of frontline essential workers and gotten numbers from that. That kind of has been upended now. We are not able to order vaccines for 1B. The Hospital and I have been trying weekly and we get declined because the state is not in Phase 1B yet. We’re hoping next week when we request vaccine, that they will fill that.”
Larson says the Long Term Care and Assisted Living Facilities in the county are expecting to have residents and staff vaccinated through the program with CVS Health later this month. Northern Montana Care Center is expecting the vaccine on Saturday, the Care and Comfort Home expects the vaccine by January 18th, and Timber Creek Village is hoping to have the vaccine by the 24th.
As for the possibility of issuing new restrictions if the Governor were to repeal efforts such as the statewide mask mandate, Larson says she is in a “wait and see” mode.
“(Gianforte) has been talking about that they are going to have some guidelines and requirements and recommendations from his office statewide. I’m going to wait and see what those look like, what our numbers look like, and how the community is sitting at that time.”
