Lake County considered high community transmission area
Kristi Niemeyer
Paige Martin gives a thumbs-up as Lake County Public Health nurse Leigh Johnson administers a COVID-19 vaccine. With the virus numbers on the increase in Lake County, the two public health employees “highly encourage everyone to get vaccinated.”
Kristi Niemeyer
Lake County Public Health in Polson is offering free COVID-19 vaccines from 1-3 p.m. Fridays, no appointment needed.
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At the Lake County Public Health office on Main Street in Polson, nurse Leigh Johnson is seeing a small but steady increase in the number of people showing up for COVID vaccines each Friday.
After the big push last spring, the demand for vaccines in Lake County had slowed to a trickle. “For a while, we weren’t giving any at all, but then we decided we needed to offer a Friday clinic.” The idea was, “if we only give one shot it’s worth it.”
At first, no one showed up. But as word spread, one or two people arrived each Friday. “Now, we’re up to doing three, four, or five. We’ve been increasing slowly.”
She hears a variety of reasons why clients are choosing to get vaccinated. Some were waiting, wanting to make sure the vaccine was safe, while others are eager to start traveling.
“Some people heard of people who weren’t vaccinated and got severely sick, or conversely, they heard about people who were vaccinated and got coronavirus and just had really mild symptoms.”
Whatever the reason, Johnson is happy to deliver the vaccine, especially with an uptick in COVID-19 cases and the new, more transmissible Delta variant on the loose in Lake County.
Effective Aug. 10, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council reinstated the mask mandate for all its government facilities in a move that echoes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines. The CDC recommended, on July 27, that fully vaccinated people begin wearing masks indoors again in places with substantial or high COVID-19 transmission rates – and as of last week, Lake County (like most of Montana) was in the red or “high” zone.
According to the CDC, Lake County is considered an area of high community transmission with 54 active cases as of Aug. 12. While 54 may not seem like much, especially compared to the Flathead Valley (555 active cases) or Missoula (289), it still meets the CDC criteria. The bar moves from moderate to substantial when the number of new infections is 50-99 per 100,000 people and to high when it’s over 100. With a population of over 30,000, Lake County has roughly 162 cases per 100,000 people.
A month ago, on July 15, Montana logged 73 new cases. By Aug. 15, that number had multiplied fivefold, with 352 new cases and 2,659 active cases. The majority of those are the new Delta variant, responsible for an estimated 83 percent of the COVID cases currently being reported in the United States. The World Health Organization describes it as the “fastest and fittest” variant so far of this rapidly mutating virus.
Megan Vigil, Lake County’s public health doctor and a family practitioner at St. Luke Community Healthcare, continues to urge caution where COVID is concerned. Recommendations to curb the spread of the virus really haven’t changed much, with getting a vaccine at the top of her list.
Other safety measures include frequent hand washing, staying home if sick, maintaining a safe distance from others in social settings, avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated places and wearing a mask that covers your nose and mouth – even if you’re fully vaccinated – in indoor public places.
A few months ago, the CDC said people who were fully vaccinated could drop the mask in public places. But new guidelines, released in late July, call for mask wearing in areas of “substantial and high transmission rates” (like Lake County) and reflect concern about an increase in cases caused by new variants, especially among younger, unvaccinated people. Masks literally add a layer of protection, shielding the wearer from viral particles in the air, and protecting those around him or her from possible transmission.
Clearly, no one is happy about pulling on masks again. Yet, more and more masked faces are appearing at stores, restaurants and community events. Neal Lewing, of the Port Polson Players, said that at the onset of the season in June, no one was wearing masks to performances. Now, he estimates nearly half of the audience is masked up.
Lake County Public Health, in a recent post on its Facebook page, urged those planning events “to take into account the necessity of the event, COVID status at the time of the event, the number of people involved and individual risk factors. We encourage caution at this time as we anticipate seeing a spike in cases with events and gatherings happening.”
The best protection remains vaccination, says Vigil. “While it does not prevent you from ever contracting COVID, it does significantly lower the chance that you will have a moderate or severe version of it. That is exactly what we are seeing reflected in those who are hospitalized,” she added. “Almost all COVID hospitalizations are among unvaccinated individuals.”
Statistics from the Montana Department of Health and Human Services support her observations that so-called “breakthrough” cases are very rare. As of Aug. 6, the state was reporting 1,030 cases of confirmed breakthrough illness out of 119,864 total COVID cases, or under one percent; likewise, hospitalizations among vaccinated people were around two percent and deaths were under one percent.
“People who’ve come down with COVID have told me they thought this whole thing was a joke until they got sick,” says Johnson. “Now, they say it’s not a joke, they wish they’d been vaccinated. They wish they had taken it seriously.”
“We’ve had people that were strong anti-vaccers who have ended up in the hospital; we’ve had people that have infected loved ones who ended up in the hospital,” she said. “People are still dying from this. People are spending a week in the hospital. It’s not a joke.”
With schools opening across Lake County later this month, parents and teachers are bound to be worried. In a letter sent to school districts in early August, the health department and CSKT Tribal Health reiterated the CDC’s recommendations for “universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status.” Irrespective of a school district’s mask policy, the CDC requires all bus passengers and drivers to mask up.
Chelsea Kleinmeyer, a registered nurse and Community Health Division director for Tribal Health, notes that “in-person learning is a priority,” and encourages everyone 12 years and older to get vaccinated unless it is contraindicated. She and Vigil both say it’s very important to keep kids home when they are sick and have them tested for COVID, if recommended by a medical professional.
Kleinmeyer adds that Tribal Health has seen several positive COVID cases among those 18 and younger. “Of those, only one was fully vaccinated.”
Pfizer vaccines, the only ones authorized for ages 12-17, are available to anyone, tribal or non-tribal, at the Tribal Health Pharmacy in Polson or St. Ignatius. Walk-in hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday (children must have approval of a parent or guardian). The Moderna vaccine for ages 18 and up is widely available from pharmacies and healthcare providers across the county.
With around 54 percent of all Lake County residents fully immunized, “we still have a long ways to go,” says Kleinmeyer, “especially among the 12-17 year olds.”
