The Churchill County School District reported yesterday that a Churchill County High School staff member has tested positive for COVID-19.
Additionally, during County Board of Health meeting yesterday, Shannon Ernst said that there have been a total of 223 positive COVID cases in Churchill County since March, and there are currently nine tests results pending verification of residency. Ernst is the Director of Social Services for the county and her office is responsible for contact tracing when someone in the community tests positive.
She also reported that during the community testing done by the county on Tuesdays and Thursdays, county staff has administered 4,857 tests. This is in addition to testing done by Banner Churchill Community Hospital, Renown, the Fallon Tribe, and NAS Fallon. There have been four deaths attributed to the virus.
Ernst is currently working with NAS Fallon and said, “with the increase in the airwings, 25% of our active cases are from the base.” She and her staff are working with the Navy to have any positive tests that are given at the clinic on base properly attributed to where that person lives. “When they are tested at the clinic on base those tests are flagged to us and not the community that person just came from,” said Ernst.
The total number of tests administered in a community, weighed against the number of positive tests are used by the state to determine the positivity rate in a community. That number is used to meet Governor Sisolak’s COVID regulations to keep a community in the green, yellow, or red, and determines the level of restrictions placed on a community.
Jim Barbee, county manager, said during the health board meeting that he continues to work closely with the state COVID Task Force, but “we are seeing ourselves trending red.” He said that for the last two week period from October 12 to the 25th with 40 active cases “we are seeing our largest positivity since March.” The previous two week period saw Churchill County with 35 active cases. He is working with the task force, “for considerations of the Navy numbers.”
The school district said in their news release yesterday that they have taken all measures of action related to the safety and well-being of all students and staff in the building and they will notify all parties who may have had a primary exposure (per the district and state guidelines) based on contact tracing throughout the district system. The last day the staff member was present in the building was Thursday, October 22nd.
Ernst said the county continues to urge community members to take advantage of the community testing at the Fairgrounds on Tuesday evenings and Thursday mornings. Call her office at 423-6695 for more information.
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