Sarah Reese, Polk County Public Health Director, provided an update Tuesday on COVID-19 to the Polk County Commissioners. At the time of that update, the number of confirmed cases in Minnesota was 235, that number was updated to 262 laboratory-confirmed cases by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Tuesday afternoon.
There remain no confirmed cases in Polk County, but Reese explained to the board that because there has been community transmission, there are likely positive cases that have not been lab identified. “First, we talked about the progression of cases in Minnesota,” said Reese. “We do know that there has been community transmission, so what that means is that there are likely other cases in Minnesota that are likely not identified with a positive lab case. I wanted to make sure that was clear with the board. I also wanted to talk about what we are doing in the county, so we discussed the planning, coordination, and response activities. I called their attention to the MDH website for the section about COVID. There have been up updates to the website to help people troubleshoot their situation. A lot of people have called, and we’ve talked through their situation, and we encourage people to continue calling our office at 281-3385.”
Reese said Polk County Public Health would only be notified by the MDH if there is a positive case in the county confirmed by a lab. Still, community transmission makes it difficult to quantify how many non-lab identified cases there might be. “Because we have what is called community transmission, there are likely more cases in the State of Minnesota,” said Reese. “Either are people are sick or not being tested, being asked to stay home. I cannot quantify what that number is right now.”
Reese directed the board to review the MDH website, specifically the section titled “About COVID-19”, which she said contains guidance for individuals regarding COVID-19. “On the website, it also has guidance for people who have been tested for COVID, have been exposed to COVID, if they are currently sick, what to do about that,” said Reese. “At the end of the day, the guidance is if you’re sick, stay home. If you are elderly, 70 or older, have underlying medical conditions, or if you just have general questions for your provider, reaching in and calling your health care provider before you show up is a good idea. Obviously, if you have an emergent health issue, continue to utilize the emergency room as needed. However, we want to keep people that are well outside of our health care system so that we don’t potentially expose someone to COVID unintentionally.”
Reese said Polk County Public Health continues to encourage people to do what they can to prevent the spread and break habits. “At the end of the day, we are encouraging people to do what they can, to think about what each person individually can do,” said Reese. “From a social distancing perspective, that means staying six feet away from each other. We are creatures of habit. We stand close to people. We talk close; we hug, we handshake, we like to do all of those things. But during this time, if people can be intentional about staying six feet away from each other just like we’re doing here, that can be part of the solution. Those common things, like washing our hands, coughing into our sleeves, are still important everyday things that folks can do. Further, we can continue to get our information from reliable sources, and that’s why I was pointing out the MDH website, specifically the section – About COVID – which answers some of those – what about me – questions.”
Mental Health during the pandemic is also essential, according to Reese, who suggested taking time for “brain breaks” and being mindful of the impact someone can have on others. “From a mental health perspective, we need to take brain breaks,” said Reese. “We need to take brain breaks away from our TV, away from electronics we have. Maybe we need to think about just sitting and quietly breathing for a few minutes, or calling somebody we haven’t talked to in a while – calling grandma or a neighbor – checking in. Those brain breaks are important. The more people can ensure that they get enough sleep, drink enough water, have proper nutrition, get out for a walk, or if we can even open our windows and look at the landscape, all of those things are good for our mental health always but especially important right now. Encourage people to continue to support communities, our businesses in ways we can. If people have to go out, think about what their impact means on others, to be mindful to go out when we need to, and to stay home when we can.”
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