HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – The Hill County Board of Health met virtually on Friday afternoon to provide their weekly COVID-19 update.
Health Officer Jessica Sheehy said nearly all COVID-19 cases in the county were either found through contact tracing or were travel related, although a few cases remain under public health investigation.
When it comes to COVID-19 testing, Hill County continues to only test symptomatic individuals and close contacts of positive cases.
Montana State University-Northern is working on getting symptomatic testing up and running at Student Health Services.
Some form of surveillance testing for at-risk students is being discussed, but is not as imminent.
Sanitarian Will Lorett says his Department has received several complaints this week about businesses not properly enforcing the mask directive.
“I have contacted those businesses and we’ve worked through it. Some of it was an education problem and we’ve worked through that. So hopefully, every business that we’ve been in contact with is currently in compliance with the mask mandate.”
Health Director Kim Larson says with new COVID-19 cases being reported nearly every day in Hill County, contact tracing is becoming “a little bit overwhelming.”
“We’re looking at hiring temporary staff to do contact tracing. I have a call with (the Association of Montana Public Health Officials) on Tuesday morning, and they are helping local health departments manage contact tracing. We have a couple people we’ve talked to personally that have worked in public health in the past and have done contact tracing and are willing to help us, so I’m hoping to get them on board. Along with that, we got some funding from a grant to possibly hire some other staff as well for contact tracing and disease investigations. And also hopefully I’ll be able to hire someone who is able to kind of be an immunization nurse for flu shot clinics, because flu season is coming and we need to get our vaccination out there. And hopefully we’re able to offer the off-site clinics that we’ve offered before.”
Larson adds that with flu season approaching, she encourages everyone to get their flu shot as soon as they can.
“It is really important this year for people to get their flu shot. It’s the best way to protect yourself from the flu. With the pandemic, the issue is that we could really drain our healthcare system if we have a really bad flu season on top of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we really want to try and avoid that as much as possible.”
As of Friday afternoon, Hill County has reported 110 total COVID-19 cases. 20 cases are active, including four hospitalizations. 88 people have recovered and two have died.
