Virus counts prompt Minot-area ‘mask up’ campaign
Higher virus counts bring call for community responsibility
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An increase in rate of positive COVID-19 tests and rising hospitalizations in Ward County led local health officials Tuesday to address the situation with the community.
At the first news conference since early June, they announced a "Mask Up, Save Lives" campaign and provided updates on the health system's capacity to handle the growing cases.
Lisa Clute, executive director at First District Health Unit, said most cases currently are being found in residents ages 20 to 50.
"We are seeing cases throughout the community, a little bit here and there, and some have formed into clusters. We do have some clusters out there that we are monitoring and watching to see how those clusters move," she said. "A big part in all of that is the public's willingness to work with us and participate in contact tracing. When they don't do that, then we don't know how far those spreads are going."
Clute said nobody wants to be told to quarantine for 14 days because of a close contact, but cooperating with contract tracing is essential to prevent spread.
"We have seen more resistance to some of the contact tracing, or not participating as well with that, in the last month," she said.
First District has turned contract tracing efforts over the State Health Department to focus instead on testing.
First District has conducted 18,672 tests in Bottineau, Burke, McHenry, McLean, Renville, Sheridan and Ward counties. The region has had 645 positive cases, with 179 currently active.
To illustrate the trend, Clute noted First District's counties recorded 4,672 tests, finding 33 positives for a .7% positivity in June. To date in August, there have been 11,359 tests, with 347 positive, and a 4.6% positivity rate.
"Our message has not changed, and it continues to be good, sound public health advice. We ask that you use good hygiene, that you keep practicing social distancing, six feet apart, wear a mask and wear a mask properly," Clute said. "We know that this slows the spread, and we encourage everybody in the community to help us slow the spread."
"For the next few days and weeks you'll be seeing more information, both from the governor's office as well as from a coalition of healthcare providers in northwestern North Dakota," said Randy Schwan, a Trinity Health vice president. "Our Critical Access Hospital partners across this region and Trinity Health and First District Health are teaming up with other agencies, public and private agencies in this region, to launch a 'Mask Up, Save Lives' campaign."
Various forms of advertising will be occurring to raise compliance with mask wearing.
"At Trinity Health we've seen a steady increase of people who come to our facility wearing masks, which is great because we have a mandatory masking policy," Schwan said. "Ninety percent of the people who come to our facilities now bring their own."
However, Schwan said people are showing fatigue after six months of the pandemic.
"We're all tired. We want the lives we had before," he said. "So we are imploring people to pay attention to the evidence, and the evidence says masking, social distancing and hygiene are still the one way and the only way we're going to get our hands around this."
John MacMartin, president of the Minot Area Chamber of Commerce also spoke to urge residents to respect the decisions of merchants who require masks in their facilities.
"We need a strong economy in our area," he said. "It depends upon all of us choosing local, but also helping to slow the spread of COVID-19."
Mark Vollmer, Minot Public Schools superintendent, said masks will be the rule when in-person classes resume Thursday. The district has 1,100 students who have opted for on-line learning, which begins next Monday.
Dr. Dawn Mattern with Trinity Sports Medicine said it is important to follow the guidelines if sports seasons are to continue.
"We've been given a chance to try and play and to participate in sports, and to go out and be active, and I think that's an incredible gift that we have to take responsibly," she said. "I take very seriously the recommendations that we have set with our teams. We're just making those to see if we can continue with this chance we've been given."
Patient count rises
Trinity Hospital has served 64 COVID-positive inpatients since the pandemic began, Schwan reported.
"In June and July, the pace definitely picked up, and our average daily census in the hospital for COVID-positive patients was around 10 per day," he said. "Over the past week or so, we've seen another increase in the activity of COVID-positive patients."
As of Tuesday, Trinity had 16 COVID-positive patients in the hospital, the highest number since the pandemic started, Schwan said. Five are in intensive care.
Trinity is not full, but there are areas that at times will be at capacity within the hospital system, which is typical of hospital operations even before COVID-19, Schwan said.
"Our capacity at the hospital isn't governed by space or even number of beds that we might have in a hospital as much as it is other resources to support the beds in terms of nursing and therapists, physicians and specialists. And that's a very fluid, moving target from day to day," Schwan said. It has resulted in a continual re-assessing and reallocation of resources, he said.
Regarding staffing, Trinity has had 51 employees throughout its system of around 3,000 workers test positive, or less than 2%, since the pandemic began. Currently, 13 staff members are in quarantine with COVID-like symptoms and are awaiting test results. Another 11 staff members are quarantined due to testing positive.
Trinity chief of medical staff Dr. Jeffrey Sather said Trinity has 18 ventilators, and currently, five COVID-positive patients are on ventilators. Sather said the ventilator supply is adequate for COVID and non-COVID patients at this time, but should the number fall short, Trinity can reach out to the state for additional supplies.
"The other piece of equipment that we have been watching very closely, though, is protective equipment," Sather said. "Being a hospital in a state where we're somewhat isolated from supplies, our stock level was kept at a pretty high level for most things in our warehouse locally, which is good because there are items that we have not gotten a single shipment of since COVID started for us back in March."
Trinity is not short, but it is drawing on the state cache for items such as the more protective, N-95 masks. The state also has equipment to sterilize masks, which are then sent back to Trinity to be re-used by the original wearer.
Schwan said Trinity still welcomes sewn and 3-D masks, which are being deployed throughout the medical system.
Sather also explained that Trinity is using treatments discussed nationally. Although in tight supply, the anti-viral agent Remdesivir has been used with 25 patients.The drug is useful in early stages of the disease.
About 20 patients have been treated with convalescent plasma, supplied from within the state.
"It's been reported to me through our infectious disease physician and those taking care of those patients that it seems to be helping as well," Sather said.
Testing sites open
Trinity continues to provide drive-up testing by appointment. People can call 857-7817 and do need need to meet criteria to be tested.On Tuesday, Trinity was scheduled to perform 121 tests and regularly sees over 100 daily.
The First District office in Minot is offering testing by appointment on weekdays, except Wednesday, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. by appointment in the former Easter Seals building next to the health unit building. Testing ends at 2:30 p.m. to be able to get samples to the State Laboratory the same day. Mass testing also has been occurring in communities throughout the district.
Recently, First District has been assisting with mass testing at Minot State University and Dakota College at Bottineau.
"We have been told by the state that at this point, positives will be contacted within 48 hours and negatives within 72 hours," Clute said.
Sather said people who have been exposed to COVID-19 should not quickly get tested because it can take six to eight days to get a positive test from that exposure. A negative test result is only a measurement of that particular time. It is important to take test results in context because people with symptoms have come to the hospital and tested negative, only to retest positive a day or two later, he said.
Trinity has had several rounds of testing at Trinity Homes, where one resident tested positive on Aug. 18.
"With that comes a retraction of some of the plans to open the facility for visitation. So you'll see this visitation at Trinity homes for residents will be for folks who are scheduled and have an appointment," Schwan said. Trinity Homes has set aside a room for visitations. It also continues to make virtual visitations through use of electronic devices possible.