HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – Hill County Health Department Director Kim Larson spoke with New Media Broadcasters on Tuesday to provide an update on the county’s response to COVID-19 in the wake of an uptick in cases.
Larson says so far, all new COVID-19 cases are connected.
“We don’t have a bunch of cases from different areas in the county…when we’re seeing cases that are kind of connected and we connect those to each other and where those infections are coming from, that’s good. And hopefully we don’t see another group pop up soon.”
A specific pinpoint of how the new cases were contracted is not available, and the original case from July 4th had not traveled out of the county recently.
Contact tracing for the five new cases is continuing.
Larson says no plans are in place to issue new restrictions locally, although that could change if more cases arise.
“It’s quite possible that it was community-acquired, our first case, they got it within our community, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we have active community spread. When you can’t associate any of these cases to each other and they don’t have a lot of travel, and they don’t have an exposure that we can find, that’s when we’d be looking at community spread. And we’re just not at that point yet, and hopefully we don’t get there.”
The Health Department strongly encourages people to wear masks when out in public and social distancing is not possible, although a mask mandate is unlikely to be issued by the county.
“That hasn’t I would assume if we went down that road, it would be a very lengthy conversation. There would be public comments and the public would be invited to give us their opinion on that as well. Right now, we’re just hoping that people will take it upon themselves to do what’s best for our community. And really wearing that cloth face covering is the best thing you can do to protect everyone else around you. It is source containment, so it contains all of those droplets that come out of your mouth and your nose when you’re talking or cough or sneeze. And those droplets do not get to anybody else. That’s the best way to protect people.”
Larson adds that if all 700 COVID-19 tests that Bullhook Community Health Center has for their Wednesday Drive-Thru testing event are used, they will be provided more testing and could hold additional events in the coming weeks.
