HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – The Hill County Board of Health met virtually on Friday afternoon to provide another update on the county’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When it comes to enforcement of the mask order, County Attorney Karen Alley says they are taking a three pronged approach.
When an initial complaint is received, the Health Department provides an educational phone call.
After a second complaint is issued, an order of corrective action is filed.
If there were to be a third complaint, that is when legal or criminal action could be taken.
So far, the County has not had any complaints reach even the order of corrective action phase in regards to the mask directive.
Anyone that files a complaint through the Health Department is asked to make sure to provide their contact information so it can be followed up on.
Sanitarian Will Lorett says his department is continuing to conduct inspections throughout the County, but they’ve received few complaints as of late and have not run into any “real problems yet.”
Due to a backlog at the private lab Montana has been using to conduct surveillance testing, only around 1/4 of the nearly 600 tests conducted earlier this month in the Havre High School Parking lot have come back. All tests so far from that event have come back negative.
Although the state of Montana has announced the resumption of sentinel testing, Hill County has no events planned, although they hope to schedule a testing event in the near future.
As of Friday morning, 754 total COVID-19 tests have been performed in Hill County. 20 tests are pending. This does not include sentinel tests.
Results from tests on symptomatic individuals or those tested through contact tracing have been coming back within 24 to 72 hours.
Hill County is not performing antibody tests at this time.
Hill County has reported a total of 35 COVID-19 cases. 21 are active and 14 have recovered.
The next special Board of Health meeting is scheduled for July 31st at 1 PM.
