Polk County Public Health Director Sarah Reese updated the Polk County Commissioners and department heads on information about COVID-19, the coronavirus on Tuesday. According to Reese, as of noon on Tuesday, March 17, none of the 60 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Minnesota were located within in Polk County. “At noon, as we’re having this conversation, I am not aware of any confirmed cases in Polk County,” said Reese. “Should that change, I would be a part of the notification plan with the Minnesota Department of Health, but as of now, I’m unaware of any confirmed cases.”
Reese said the most important thing for the community and Polk County staff was to carefully follow the community mitigation strategies and plan for connecting virtually. “Those community mitigation strategies are important because we don’t have a vaccine or treatment currently available, so it’s very important to slow that down, spread it out, and reduce that impact on our health care system,” said Reese. “This is a good opportunity for Polk County residents to think about how they can connect virtually and how we can continue to support one another, but maybe in a little different way than we have traditionally thought. We are all very good creative thinkers, so no time like the present to utilize our creative thinking to still engage with people we need to meet with.”
According to Reece, the recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) are for public office buildings to remain open at this time, provided they can maintain social distancing of at least six feet. “In terms of Polk County buildings, the governor, of course, made an executive order related to school closures,” said Reese. “Those closures were not for an epidemiological reason but rather for a planning and preparation perspective. Yesterday there was an executive order for restaurants, bars, etc., related to their dine-in option as well as other sorts of recreational type places. As part of that guidance, MDH recommends that public office buildings stay open as long as they can guarantee social distancing of six feet apart from one another. We have, through the last several days, been assessing our Polk County staff’s need for alternative work accommodations and what does that look like for the health and safety of our staff as well as visitors to our buildings.”
Reese explained that if a case is confirmed in Polk County, the individual testing positive would be isolated and that MDH would conduct a contact investigation to determine if anyone they had been in contact with needed any type of quarantine. “If we have a positive case in Polk County, the MDH will notify local public health along with the primary care provider, and then a series of things happen,” said Reese. “Right now, the MDH is in charge of doing what we’d call contact investigations. The individual who has had the diagnosis of COVID would be contacted by MDH with a series of questions – where have you been, who have you been with, who have you been in close contact with, have you traveled, things of those nature. Then, they would reach out to additional people that potentially could be exposed based on their risk of exposure, and there are very specific criteria for that which has also been changing as we learn more about this.”
Reese stressed to the board the importance of taking the general precautions to avoid being exposed to any sort of illness like cleaning your hands often with soap and water or hand sanitizer with 60 percent alcohol especially after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing, avoiding touching your eyes, nose, and mouth, avoiding close contact, staying home if sick, covering coughs and sneezes, wearing a facemask if sick, and cleaning and disinfecting surfaces regularly.
The commissioners also voted to extend the latitude of County Administrator Chuck Whiting and Commissioner Gary Willhite, Board Chair, to make decisions with regards to the emergency dealing with COVID-19. That includes making decisions about limiting public access or closing county facilities to the public or staff if situations warrant without full board approval. State Statute allows those decisions to made in emergencies and to be retroactively authorized by the entire board at their next meeting.
Whiting said the county is doing its due diligence to have contingency plans and maintain good communication with the public if services would be changed or disrupted. “We are doing our due diligence of trying to plan for whatever we need to do,” said Whiting. “The news changes hourly. The department heads and I have talked about contingency plans, what to do. Part of that would be to make sure we maintain good communication with the public on services that would be changed or disrupted. Right now, everything is the same as it’s always been, but we’re well aware of it. We hope people pay attention to the issue, keep doing the social distancing thing, washing your hands, not touching your face, and all the things you’re being told to do. Pay attention, this is a serious situation, and everybody is a part of trying to make it better. I’d also like to add, everybody, look out for each other. This is going to be something that people are going to need each other for.”
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