Pandemic task force gives COVID-19 update

A report from the Hot Springs County Pandemic Task Force took up the first portion of the county commissioner’s meeting on November 3.

County Health Officer Dr. Vernon Miller, was joined by County Nurse Manager of Public Health Tricia McPhie, Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Gordon and Mary Gordon, Public Health Response Coordinator, updating the commissioners on where things currently stand in the county in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a previous meeting, the commissioners had discussed a variance for Hot Springs County to refrain from following any of the statewide orders. At that meeting, the task force convinced the commissioners it was not the right time to stop following the orders and the item was set aside for the time being.

At this meeting, Commission Chairman Phil Scheel reiterated “keeping our economy and life as we know it is most important,” but admitted the pandemic had been affecting the county much differently in the past two weeks with rising numbers of cases.

Vice chair Tom Ryan believes the commissioners need to continue to address the situation and want Dr. Miller and the rest of the task force to report to them periodically on the situation so the public knows what is going on.

McPhie said we have seen the most active number of cases in the last couple of weeks in Hot Springs County with 46 lab confirmed as of the meeting. “Our statewide cases have doubled,” she said, “and our hospital beds are filling up.”

Dr. Miller pointed out it would be “challenging to find a bed to transfer anyone out of the county because of it (the rise in cases). We have cases in all the schools.”

Miller said testing is still going on and the hospital is still working on getting their machine for blood testing for the virus up and running.

“A lot of the early cases were false negatives,” he said. “We’re moving past that to a more accurate rapid testing.”

Mary Gordon said her department has been sharing health messages based on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines. She indicated they are seeing a lot of people being financially impacted because of it and every time she finds another resource she is sharing it on the Emergency Management website as well as their Facebook site.

Gordon is acting as the Public Information Officer (PIO) for the team.

Bill Gordon said he has been the one doing most of the ordering for personal protective equipment (PPE) for public health, the hospital and others, and he is very comfortable with what we have and what additional items he can get quickly if needed.

All of the distribution is going through him so records are being kept as to where things are going and how much is going out the door. He is also the one transporting the testing kits and assured the commissioners everything is going very smoothly.

“We have 47 million cases worldwide,” Dr. Miller said. “Nine million in the U.S. this really is different than the flu. We have no idea when a vaccine will be ready. It may be spring of next year before we see something that can be widely distributed. There is a lot we still don’t know about it.

“We’ve been very fortunate here in Hot Springs County. We do need to be aware of things like mental health issues. I worry about those in elder care. What do we do and how do we keep the people emotionally and physically safe?

“It’s going to take years to figure it all out, but now, we have to do what we can. Wash your hands, wear a mask, social distance and avoid people from out of state.

“Casper is full. St. Vincent’s is full. If we have someone with a heart attack that needs transferred, we have no place to send them. We’re constantly checking with other hospitals to see what we can share, what we can do to help, whether its extra beds, ventilators or whatever.

“We’re trying to keep the spread to a trickle so we can move those resources around, but their own people are getting sick. It’s hard to keep a business running if you have even one more person get sick. There are teachers, children, there’s not a deep pool of substitutes to keep things going.”

Dr. Miller went on to say we have doubled our cases in Wyoming in a month and right now we are surrounded by it. He doesn’t believe seeking the variance is a good idea at this time as they are starting to feel some stress at our own hospital.

“It wouldn’t take much to take us out of action,” he said, “if we had a run on illness with nurses, doctors or other healthcare workers. The decision this week may not be the right decision for next week. We have to make the best decision with the information that we have right now.

“We need to be Wyoming data driven.”

Right now the state is offering at-home saliva tests for free and Dr. Miller says those tests are 96-percent accurate.

McPhie said Public Health is still running COVID tests on a drive-thru basis for those who are asymptomatic and she is currently working to get another person to help with the testing as the numbers have increased for those coming through.

She also indicated they are up when it comes to seasonal flu shots, 29-percent over last year. Flu shots may be given by appointment each day between 3 and 5 p.m.