Board of Health hears update on COVID, other issues

The Hill County Board of Health held its quarterly meeting Wednesday and discussed COVID-19 in the community, the area's progress on vaccinations and other public health issues.

Hill County Public Health Director Kim Berg, also the county's health officer, said that, as of Tuesday at 5 p.m., the county has had 3,184 COVID-19 cases, with 105 active cases, 12 active hospitalizations and 60 deaths.

The numbers increased in the update Berg released Wednesday evening, with 3,201 total cases, 119 active and 13 active hospitalizations.

Berg said in the Board of Health meeting that the county has seen a massive uptick in deaths in the past month, and the situation with COVID-19 in the county overall is very concerning.

She said 53 percent of the county is fully vaccinated, putting it just shy of the state's 54 percent, and 59 percent of people have had at least one dose.

She said the 18-to-29 age range remains the least vaccinated at only 43 percent with at least one dose, and the 70 to 79 range remains the highest at 82 percent.

Despite the low number in the 18-to-29 range, she said, eligible school-age children, 12 to 17, is at 52 percent, which is encouraging.

Berg said, based on numbers provided to her by the state, the risk to unvaccinated people is statistically clear, as they are more than five times more likely to get sick, almost five times more likely to be hospitalized, and almost four times more likely to die than their vaccinated counterparts.

She said the health department is still providing COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesdays and will be accepting walk-ins for all vaccines today and Friday.

She said the department is offering Pfizer boosters to eligible people but cannot provide boosters for Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines until they are approved for use by the federal government.

The Food and Drug Administration approved emergency authorization for those vaccines as boosters Wednesday. See a related story on this page.

Berg also said Pfizer is predicting that their vaccine will be approved for children age 5 and up Nov. 3 and the department is ordering more vaccine in preparation for that approval.

On the subject of COVID-19, Lead Public Health Nurse Bridget Kallenberger said recent hires have helped the department and given her an opportunity to tackle a backlog of work.

Kallenberger also advised people that while home testing kits for COVID-19 are great, it's important that people get positive results confirmed by the health care provider, just like they would a pregnancy test.

The board also discussed a memorandum of understanding with the state that Berg said makes them a partner in the state's Opioid Response Program, which will give the department access to naloxone, a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, as well as training for staff that can be used to provide education on the drug and how to administer it to the public.

Berg said entities like the Havre Police Department and Hill County Sheriff's Office have access to the drug already, but now the department can provide it as well.

The board also discussed technical assistance grants and a possible restructuring of the board into a city-county board of health.

Berg said she talked to the Montana Public Health Institute and the state for information about these grants, and help with the reorganizing into a city-county board of health but they're still looking at how recent legislation affects these things.

She said the state did provide a template for the restructuring, but because County Attorney Karen Alley, who provides the board legal guidance, is leaving at the end of the week they need to wait for a new attorney before moving forward on anything.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said the county will have an answer about a possible interim-county attorney Monday.

Hill County Sanitarian Clay Vincent said his department has been dealing with a few blue-green algae issues in the area, and Peterson said he wanted to remind everyone that while public lands may have signs up to warn about this dangerous algae, those hunting on private land may encounter algae without any warning signs and they should be wary.

Blue-green algae can be dangerous to humans and their pets, as many of them release neurotoxins into the water which can be irritating to skin, and if ingested in sufficient quantities, deadly.

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean said, given the kind of summer the area had, she was surprised they didn't have more issues with the toxic algae.

Berg said she was talking with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Havre-area Fisheries Biologist Cody Nagel recently and he said his hypothesis is that the lack of precipitation this year affected the build-up of excess nutrients in the water that often results from agricultural runoff.

The next quarterly meeting of the Hill County Board of Health will be Jan. 19, 2022.