Health Officer provides update on local COVID-19 situation

Hill County Public Health Director and Health Officer Kim Larson provided an update on many aspects of how COVID-19 is being handled in the community, and answered a few common questions.

She said even with the vaccine rolling out, people in the community need to remain aware of the still-present risks of spreading the virus.

“Everyone is ready for this pandemic to be over, and believe me, we are as well,” Larson said. “But we need to stay vigilant in protecting our communities through easy preventive measures such as social distancing, wearing a face covering when you can’t social distance, washing your hands regularly and staying home when you are sick. Now is not the time to let up, we need to keep pushing through to the end. The vaccine is not 100 percent effective in preventing illness, no vaccine is, so people need to still do their part to slow the spread.”

People have asked why more is not being done with Havre bar Golden Spike violating former Gov. Steve Bullock’s directive on bars closing at 10 p.m., — Hill County Sanitarian Clay Vincent and Sanitarian-in-Training Will Lorett said the bar has repeatedly and deliberately broken state COVID-19 mandates by staying open past 10 p.m. and not ensuring proper social distancing and mask wearing among its customers — Larson said the Hill County Health Department issued an Order of Corrective Action in an effort to educate the establishment.

She said there are some hoops to jump through when it comes to legally shutting a business like Golden Spike down because they are violating a mandate that is not a written out as a public health law.

Larson said business owners need to keep people safe and most are.

“As Gov. Gianforte says, people need to take personal responsibility and do their part to protect the community,” she said. “Most businesses in our town are doing their part.”

Gianforte recently rescinded most of his predecessor’s public health mandates including eliminating capacity limits and the 10 p.m. closing time for restaurants, bars, breweries and casinos, effective today.

When asked about the situation with Golden Spike, Hill County Attorney Karen Alley said the matter is legally moot.

When asked if the health board would issue an order to keep restrictions in place, Larson said her department is planning to follow Gianforte’s directives, and work on managing the pandemic according to how he recommends.

Larson said the county is still seeing cases coming from all over the county for the most part, but recently the health department has seen most exposures happening at Christmas gatherings and at work when someone goes to work sick.

One question that many in the community have asked is whether people found to be close contacts of COVID-19 but have gotten the vaccine still need to quarantine.

Larson said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still recommending quarantine for individuals who have received the vaccine because the centers are still researching whether people can be a carrier of the virus and spread it or not even after being vaccinated.

She said she anticipates the recommendation changing when there is more data and research on the subject.

She said everyone who is quarantined is issued a Health Officer Order of Quarantine that outlines the expectations of them during their time at home, and if people refuse to quarantine they have the order served to them by law enforcement.

However, Larson said, this is fairly uncommon because most people are doing a good job of following these orders because they do not want to make others sick.