Local health official urges caution as COVID-19 surges globally

Hill County Public Health Director and Health Officer Kim Berg is asking people in the community to take precautions against spreading COVID-19 as cases rise in the area, Montana, the U.S. and worldwide.

COVID-19 cases have dropped significantly in the county since late last year and Berg has said those numbers are highly encouraging, but the situation with COVID-19 can change very quickly and just because the numbers are down doesn't mean the virus isn't still in the community and can't make a comeback.

"We know that COVID-19 is not gone from our community," she said, "so anyone who has symptoms should get tested to assist in slowing the spread. This is also why it is important to continue social distancing, wearing a mask when you cannot social distance, avoiding large crowds and getting your vaccine."

Hill and Blaine counties have seen a few cases coming in over the past few weeks, going from no active cases a few weeks ago to Hill County having eight confirmed active cases as of Tuesday evening and Blaine County having also having eight, while Chouteau County, also free of active cases a few weeks ago, reported one new case Tuesday, bringing its total to two active cases.

Liberty County still is listed on the state daily update this morning as having no active cases.

And the disease is still impacting business, with at least one business posting a new sign that it is closed to the public due to a COVID exposure.

While the rules continue to evolve as more is learned and as situations change, the basic rules remain that people should regularly wash their hands and clean and disinfect surfaces and generally avoid crowds and wear a mask when out in public.

The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention recently updated its guidelines on mask wearing for people who are fully vaccinated, which now say they can walk, run, hike or bike outdoors alone or with members of their household, attend small outdoor gatherings with fully vaccinated family and friends or mixture of fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people, and dine at outdoor restaurants with friends from multiple households without wearing a mask.

The guidelines also permit fully vaccinated people to attend a crowded, outdoor event, like a live performance, parade, or sports event, as long as they remain masked.

  People are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving their second vaccine in the case of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines or their first and only shot the case of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Despite these changes the CDC and health officials around the country continue to urge vigilance and caution.

Berg said the cases the department is seeing lately are mainly the result of symptomatic people coming in to get tested and her department is contact tracing as normal, but they tend to get far fewer positive results than they did last year.

However, she said, her department is still concerned about people not coming in to get tested even when they have symptoms, especially due to the belief that they need to keep working no matter what, and it's a public health problem that predates the pandemic.

"We not only see this with COVID-19, but we have seen this for years when people are sick but continue to go to work because they need a paycheck or have no leave left," she said. "This year, it is even more important to take illness seriously, stay home when you are sick and call your doctor to set up an appointment to get tested. The more we know about the virus in our community, the better equipped we will be to slow it down."

She said the department has seen a significant decline in people wanting testing in general, but they are encouraging anyone experiencing COVID-19 symptoms to get tested and help stop the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

State of vaccination

The Hill County Health Department is set to discontinue its mass vaccination clinics this month, normally held in the Holiday Village Mall every Thursday, due to a lack of traffic.

The last of these clinics will be held Thursday from noon to 5 p.m.

Berg said the clinics are seeing fewer than 50 people each and with less than half of the eligible population of the county having received even one dose she is concerned that the county won't hit herd immunity as a result of this drastic slowdown.

According to the latest numbers provided by the Hill County Health Department 5,638 people have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 4,255 of those people are fully immunized, meaning that only 46 percent of the county's eligible population has received even their first dose, including people fully vaccinated.

This number includes much of Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, which, by all accounts, has a much higher vaccination rate than Hill County as a whole.

Berg said there was initially some confusion regarding these numbers and some, including the Havre Daily News as reflected in previous stories, believed the number of people in the county who were fully immunized and those who received first doses were separate numbers and thus the vaccination rate was far higher than it was.

She said this was a misunderstanding of the data, not that the data was incorrect or misreported and the department will now only report the number of people fully immunized to avoid misunderstanding.

"Throughout all of the reporting and activities that go on during this pandemic there are bound to be confusions," she said.

Berg said the department is working with the Association of Montana Public Health Officials, the Montana Public Health Institute and the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services to create flyers, posts, PSAs and more, to get more information out to the public and hopefully encourage more community members to get vaccinated.

She also said the department is prepared to act quickly to reestablish clinics for the community if the demand for vaccine increases in the wake of another surge, but for now the department and its partners are well equipped to continue distribution.

"We will work together with Northern Montana Health Care, Bullhook Community Health Center and the pharmacies and make it available within our community," she said. "At this time with offering vaccinations at more than five locations locally I think we are doing well."

Berg also said the department and its partners at Northern Montana Health Care have been working hard to make sure no vaccine goes to waste and, as things slow down, that vaccine supply has been split up between all the providers in the area to ensure it gets used.

Despite her concerns with the slowdown, she said, she is thankful for people who are still taking the virus seriously and have gotten the vaccine, and she encouraged anyone who hasn't gotten the shot yet to remedy that situation as soon as they are able.

"I would like to thank the community members who have taken it upon themselves to get the vaccine, and help us fight against COVID-19," she said. "If you haven't gotten your COVID-19 vaccination yet, and have questions or aren't sure if you want to get it, please reach out to us at the health department, or to your primary care provider and get more information."

Health care stress

Berg said her department is still hard at work with contact tracing but has recently had to let some of its temporary employees doing this work go.

She said part of this is just because there is less work to be done, but the department also does not have the funding to sustain these positions any longer.

She said the department is working on plans for making sure all of this work will get done in the event of another surge similar to what other parts of the country and world are seeing. But Berg said this lack of funding isn't the only problem the department will face should the surge come to Hill County.

"We do not have the resources, both physically or mentally, to handle it all again," she said.

She said the toll of last year has left its mark on many in public health, her department included, and they are exhausted.

"The time, effort, resources and manpower it took for my department to perform all case investigations and contact tracing was huge," she said. "We do not have the money to pay for the hours as we did before, and we are all physically and mentally drained from the last year. You will be hard-pressed to find a health care or public health facility that isn't struggling physically and mentally at this point, and the morale and ability to give of ourselves like we did this last year is just not there."