by April Scheinoha
Reporter
Kayla Jore, director of Inter-County Nursing Service, may feel like a broken record when it comes to encouraging eligible individuals to become vaccinated against COVID-19.
“I keep saying it over and over,” said Jore, who provided an update on the county’s COVID-19 response at the Pennington County Board meeting Tuesday, Dec. 14.
As of Tuesday, the county’s COVID-19 vaccination rate was 57% for those ages 5 and above. Jore described the percentage as “not great.” The percentage rose to 60% when considering eligible residents with at least one dose of the vaccine.
Jore is watching another percentage – the COVID-19 positivity rate. As of Tuesday, that rate was 9.2% in Pennington County while it’s about 6% statewide. She added that the positivity rate seems to be declining statewide.
“Primarily, we’re still seeing Delta,” said Jore, who noted that the majority of hospitalized COVID-19 patients have been infected with the Delta variant. It is believed that the recently identified Omicron variant has more mild symptoms than the Delta variant.
In November, 306 Pennington County residents were diagnosed with COVID-19. Nineteen were hospitalized. Five of the hospitalized COVID-19 patients were fully vaccinated. Of the number of fully vaccinated, hospitalized patients, four were over the age of 70.
There was a big jump in county COVID-19 cases after Thanksgiving and Jore anticipates another big jump after Christmas gatherings. So far in December, the county has had 67 COVID-19 cases.
Inter-County Nursing will be participating in a pilot program with the Minnesota Department of Health to provide COVID-19 testing kits. The program seeks to lessen the barriers for people who have barriers to COVID-19 testing.
Many of the in-home testing results don’t need to be reported to MDH, said Jore, who believed that some – like those involving long-term or home care – need to be reported. Jore expected to receive more information about the pilot program in the next few weeks.
Inter-County Nursing continues to hold COVID-19 vaccination clinics on a weekly basis. Last week, it held a vaccination clinic for kids. At that time, 114 vaccinations were administered. That number also included some booster shots for parents.
Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots are now available for 16- to 17-year-olds, Jore said.
County Board authorized staff to execute documents related to county participation in the multistate settlements involving opioid distributors and manufacturers.
According to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, the state is expected to receive a maximum of $300 million of the $26 billion multistate settlement agreements with three pharmaceutical distributors and an opioid manufacturer.
When the settlements were first announced, the Attorney General’s Office said the state planned to keep 80% with the remainder given in grants to counties for opioid abatement. The Association of Minnesota Counties negotiated with the Attorney General’s Office to change the allotments. Commissioner Darryl Tveitbakk said 75% will now be diverted to counties with the rest going to the state and others.
“It’s not life-changing money,” said Tveitbakk, who anticipated Pennington County would receive $20,000 to $25,000.
Since 2000, more than 5,400 Minnesotans have died due to the opioid epidemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a surge in fatal and nonfatal opioid overdoses.