The Churchill County Board of Health met at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday January 27 in the first public meeting of the new year. Held in the Commission Chambers in the Churchill County Administration Building, attendees were able to participate in person or via Zoom.
The two new board members, County Commissioners Dr. Justin Heath and Dr. Gregory Koenig were welcomed to the board, after which presentations were made on a variety of health-related topics.
Shannon Ernst, Churchill County Social Services director, began with a presentation on COVID-19 updates. Testing started on May 10, 2020 and over 10,000 tests have been performed to date. The average number of tests per day had peaked to 150 and is now down to about 20 per day. To date, Churchill County has recorded 1,798 positive cases with 304 of them still active and 48 deaths.
Social Services will be publishing the February testing and vaccination schedule soon. It takes 17 staff members to run the testing site, and 32 staff members to administer vaccinations at the site. Testing services are not limited to Churchill County residents, as neighboring county residents have been served as well.
Vaccinations are received from the state in lots of 100. However, allocations for the county are down due to a shortage at the state level and that affects scheduling. The last vaccination order was for 1,600 doses but the county only received 200, and some of those doses were designated for Banner Hospital. Moderna is the vaccination being administered. Each of those vials holds at least 10 doses and no doses have been wasted or lost while being administered.
Social Services has received 100% of the funding allocated from the state treasury and the health staff is now funded through 2022. Federal lab standards regulations and associated Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) are set by Department of Health and Human Services. A CLIA waiver was needed by the department to acquire the new rapid testing machine and that waiver is currently pending state approval. The state has also provided other lab equipment and testing support to the department, with more monies available for departmental support into July 2023.
The department has also received a Community Development Block Grant through HUD and an Economic Development award of $91,000. Ernst will have allocation proposals for those funds for the board soon. There are also funding process changes that will be presented to the board in the next few weeks.
Community Partner updates were then provided:
The Churchill Community Coalition discussed the Too Good For Drugs (TGFD) program which focuses on substance abuse awareness and prevention, and the Mindfulness program which focuses on mental health wellness. The new Karma Box was also discussed, with one box placed near the Chamber of Commerce office so far. The Coalition will be partnering with the school district to locate additional boxes at each school facility. In addition, the coalition has been nominated for the Chamber of Commerce's 2020 Outstanding Business Innovations award.
New Frontier provided information on the adolescent and youth programs, family counseling and the drug prevention and treatment programs. New programs planned include peer mentoring and life coaching. The State Health department recently inspected the facility for COVID and suggested that two quarantine rooms be designated for COVID use. The facility has since gotten a clean bill of health. They reported six positive COVID cases at the facility with one staff member death. They currently have 28 residential beds and the drop-in center.
The Churchill County School District reported on the Mental Health Counseling and Why You Matter (WYM) programs. The district is currently partnering with UNR for a trial mental health therapy program using student interns which is proving to be very successful. They are also working with the UNR Downing Clinic for support groups for CCSD students and staff as well.
The WYM program has two parts right now. The first is composed of photos of high school students and others holding signs to say “I matter because...” and those have been displayed at various county locations. Photos are also in progress for the middle school students. The second part is composed of students creating Positive Intention flags. About 400 flags kits have been distributed to the schools so far, with a target of creating 2,500 flags. The WYM team is working with the Chamber of Commerce to display the completed flags in business windows around town. Information about the WYM program was also recently shared with the State of Colorado.
Superintendent Stephens also gave an update the schools' second semester COVID model which will consist of full-time online learning and dual in-person sessions, which is the same model used for the first semester.
Banner Hospital reported that the hospital has been the highest at-capacity hospital in the state for the past two months. They are currently running at 100% and the medical-surgical group is running at 80%. Dr. Heath was the first person in the state and in the county to receive a COVID vaccination. Ventilators and PPE equipment are in sufficient supply at this time. On January 26, the hospital received their highest 9-1-1 call volume ever: 23 calls with 9 transports were handled on that day.
Western Nevada College reported that they are offering live, online, and Zoom classes this semester.
Oasis Academy provided COVID statistics, reporting that 38 people have been excluded from the facility to date, and 24 positive cases were recorded.
The Board of Health meetings will switch from being held quarterly to being held monthly with the next meeting scheduled for February 24th at 9:00 a.m.
The Board of Health meetings will switch from being held quarterly to monthly, with the next meeting scheduled for February 24. The meeting was adjourned at 10:31 am.
Comment
Comments