Officials urge caution during reopening
FORUM FILE PHOTO
Tom Patterson, right, Nodaway County Health Center director, and Tabitha Frank, public health nurse supervisor at the center, spoke with Maryville City Council members at a special meeting held Wednesday afternoon. Council members left an empty seat between each of them, and audience chairs were spaced out more than usual to encourage social distancing.
MARYVILLE, Mo. — County health officials are optimistic after no positive results were returned from a mass testing clinic for COVID-19 last week and the reopening of businesses with some restrictions has gone relatively smoothly this week.
“I think it’s gone a little bit smoother than I thought it would this week, so far,” said Tom Patterson, Nodaway County Health Department administrator, during a weekly briefing with the county commission Tuesday. “I thought it would be pretty rough with a lot of questions and uncertainty, but the orders are pretty clear if you look at them, and it’s really been better, I think, so far. … I’m just optimistic that it’s going to be better all the way through.”
As of Tuesday, 254 Nodaway County residents have been tested for COVID-19, and five have tested positive. Twenty-two of those tests were rapid tests performed at Mosaic Medical Center – Maryville. The 254 residents accounts for about 1.2 percent of the county.
Prior to Tuesday’s positive result, a woman age 90-99 had the most recent positive case, and is “doing well at this point,” Tabitha Frank, nurse supervisor at the health department, said. The previous three people who tested positive have all recovered. The fifth is a man in his sixties.
“We’ve been fortunate that the cases we’ve had — due to their employment situation, or their age or retirement status, or due to the social distancing — that we don’t have a lot of contacts,” Patterson said. “Which would make sense at this time; that’s part of the purpose of that social distancing. With these communicable diseases, you can get a lot of contacts with these cases.”
None of the 98 tests taken during last week’s mass testing clinic came back positive, a trend that held true across most of the areas where the state-sponsored testing clinics were held last week. All in all, 3,200 samples were tested during the rural-centric program, and only nine returned positive, Frank said.
Still, health department officials stressed the importance of maintaining social distancing as much as possible while businesses and services start on the long road back to normalcy.
“I think we’re on target, but there is a risk, especially when people are not social distancing,” Frank said. “Employers, businesses need to help to enforce those things or else we will have an issue; that’s always a possibility.
“Especially because St. Joe (which is a hotspot for COVID-19) is just a car ride away. And there’s several people that live here that work in St. Joe. So there’s always that risk.”
Patterson echoed those sentiments.
“Yeah, when you get more people out, that increases the risk, so it’s real important for people to keep social distancing,” Patterson said. “And keep practicing good hygiene: not touching your face, washing your hands — anytime you go out and about, just be aware of what you’re doing.”
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