Health officer warns of re-opening the county too quickly

At its weekly COVID-19 update Friday members of the Hill County Public Health Board discussed the prospect of re-opening Montana’s economy.

Hill County Commissioner Mike Wendland said he and others were anxious to get restrictions lifted so people could go back to work for the sake of their livelihoods.

Hill County Health Officer Jessica Sheehy warned that lifting all restrictions at once would be a mistake and could lead to a resurgence in COVID-19 cases.

She said the county should adopt a more regimented approach, lifting restrictions slowly and observing case numbers and transmission. She said if numbers stay the way they are restrictions could be continued to be lifted until the economy is completely re-opened.

Sheehy said she thinks Hill County is doing well and praised the citizens for taking social distancing seriously.

“I think our county has done an excellent job,” she said.

The Health Board also gave an update on the state of COVID-19 testing in the county.

“At this point there are not any concerns about running out of testing,” said Sheehy.

Public Health Director Kim Larson said Bullhook Community Health Center is still not able to offer testing due to its current staffing, but that they are constantly reevaluating the situation to see if that capacity changes.

County Attorney Karen Alley said there have still been no citations for businesses or people not flowing Gov. Steve Bullock’s directives.

“We’ve had very few compliance issues, and what we’ve had we’ve handled with informal conversations, emails, letters, that kind of thing so that gone extremely well I feel,” she said.

During the meeting Sheehy also made note of a particular question she has gotten this past week.

“Garage sales are not considered and essential service so we should not be serving those. … I’ve seen a few posts on Facebook, and I got a call from a concerned citizen about that,” she said.

That reminder drew a chuckle from other members of the board.

The meeting was adjourned with no questions or comments from the public.