By Josh Margolis
HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – In the midst of rising COVID-19 case numbers, Hill County Health Director Kim Larson is urging people to take the virus seriously.
Currently, Hill County has three full-time contact tracers and is in the process of hiring another three.
The Health Department has also started to use SaraAlert to primarily monitor people that are in quarantine and asymptomatic.
“It checks in with them daily and they are able to log whether or not they have symptoms, if they need anything else,” says Health Director Kim Larson. “We’re able to look at that online system instead of having to specifically call them every day, so that cuts back on some of the time we have to spend on that.”
Between people in isolation and quarantine, the Health Department is monitoring over 180 Hill County residents.
“Some people don’t quite see the value of isolation and quarantine. And it’s really important. If you’re knowingly going out and infecting our community, the numbers are going to continue to rise and eventually we will get to the point where we are going to have to move backwards in our phases and close things down again. We really don’t want to do that. We’ve had a few issues recently. I think people are just over it. We understand and we are as well. But we have to do what’s best for the community and it’s a minor inconvenience at one point if you think about everybody that you’re helping if you’re following these orders.”
Larson says they are also continue to deal with complaints of people or businesses not following the directives.
“Every day we kind of get a handful of complaints of businesses that are not fully following the mask mandate. We’re going to be sending out another reminder to those businesses…That we’re still in Phase 2, the mask mandate is still required and we have signs and we’re here to help support them and enforce it. Other than that, we get some calls daily on people that believe that they see people that they see people that are quarantined or isolated and are out and about. We check in on those.”
Northern Montana Care Center Outbreak
Since Northern Montana Care reported a COVID-19 outbreak on Sunday that has infected at least eight residents and numerous staff members, the Health Department remains in contact with them multiple times a day.
“I have one nurse who is assigned specifically to the Care Center and is talking with them daily, seeing how everything is going. They’re doing testing and anybody who is sick is isolated. Everybody is quarantined and we’re in conversation with them daily to se if they need anything else, to see how the capacity is going for their staff, if they are going to need additional resources and things like that.”
Flu Season Approaching
Due to the amount of COVID-19 related work the Health Department has had recently, Larson says they have not been able to schedule a flu clinic yet. There is a job posted for an immunization nurse that would help out with clinics and other immunizations.
The Health Department does have flu shots available to administer by appointment only. They do not currently have the high-dose vaccine (for those 65 and older), but they are expected to get those in stock by sometime next week.
Larson says that this year, getting a flu shot is as important as ever.
“In the middle of a pandemic right now, the capacity of our public health system in Hill County is something that needs to be watched closely. In the last week alone, we’ve had a significant rise in cases in COVID-19, including an outbreak in our long-term care facility. A lot of those patients are going to be high risk and are more likely to need hospitalization at some point. With that in mind, we don’t want to completely overload our public health or healthcare system with an increase in influenza cases as well. So getting that flu shot is the best protection you can get. And also continuing all of the mitigation efforts we have in place right now. The social distancing, wearing your face covering, washing your hands, washing down surfaces. All of that will help with seasonal influenza as well.”
Health Officer
September 30th was Hill County Health Officer Jessica Sheehy’s final day in the role after stepping down from the part-time position for personal reasons.
Larson is now the Health Director and Health Officer for Hill County.
“The additional duties are the authority that is granted in the Montana statute. Basically, day to day, I was doing a lot of the work but was not able to sign the Health Officer orders because she was our Health Officer and signed our standing orders and all of that. So additionally, there’s not going to be a lot added to my plate. I will be overseeing our sanitarian, our health department and providing recommendations to our Board of Health and keeping the health and safety of Hill County in mind with all of our decisions. I already did that with everything here as the Director of the Health Department. But ultimately it was a goal for me to be a Health Officer for a county. I didn’t expect it to happen right now during this time, but I’m really looking forward to it and being able to work for Hill County and get us through the pandemic and back to normal and as safe and healthy as possible.”
