By Josh Margolis
HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – More than 6,000 Hill County residents are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and a small group of citizens gathered on Tuesday afternoon to mark the milestone.
At the brief event, a handful of people convened in front of Bullhook Community Health Center to paint the progress meter on the side of 5th Avenue to reflect the vaccination mark.
The informal group gave speeches and invited local officials to do the same.
“Ideally, we would be celebrating a month since the last coronavirus case in the county,” said MSU-Northern Professor Will Rawn. “We’re not. We recognize as long as we’re painting 6,000 up there and not 10,000, that isn’t likely to happen. We’ve still got cases. We understand that. The great thing though, is at least now we’ve got 6,000 people who are a lot less likely to get deadly sick than they would have been otherwise, and are a lot less likely to make someone who is on chemotherapy sick. So that’s a great thing. That’s what we’re celebrating.”
One of the local health officials that spoke was Alysia Mosness, the Director of Infection Prevention at Northern Montana Health Care.
“It is for real, it is still here, something we are still battling. With the Delta variant here, the big thing I want to talk about is that kids seem to be getting sicker. We’re kind of seeing that trend in other states. A majority of these children are not eligible to be vaccinated yet, so it’s kind of time for us to step up and start vaccinating for those that can’t get vaccinated.”
Mosness says that they will be setting up pop-up clinics around town this fall where the COVID-19 vaccine will be provided.
Hill County Health Officer Kim Berg was not at the event, but provided a statement:
I am excited to see that our immunization numbers are going up, but I want to reiterate that we still have a long ways to go. We are seeing an increase in cases, just as the State and the Nation are, and the best way to stop that trend is to increase our vaccination rate. Thank you to everyone out there who has gotten vaccinated, and for those with questions or concerns please email/call us, or your primary care provider and talk to us. We are here to help you understand the vaccines, how they work and why they are our best chance at stopping the pandemic.
According to the Department of Public Health and Human Services, 6,040 Hill County residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, representing 46 percent of the eligible population (those 12 years of age and older). 6,787 Hill County residents have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
