During a COVID-19 update at the Tuesday morning McLeod County Board meeting, public health officials asked residents to stay the course and maintain social distancing.
"We are still in a state of widespread cases worldwide," said interim McLeod County Health and Human Services director Meghan Mohs.
She said the U.S. was approaching 1.2 million cases and Minnesota was over 7,000, recently increasing by 471 each day. Mohs said that as testing increases, more confirmed cases will naturally be found. As of Thursday there were six confirmed cases in McLeod County.
Gov. Tim Walz recently extended the stay-at-home order to May 18, but made some changes to allow retail businesses to provide curbside pickup and delivery services
"I'm glad more people are able to return to their jobs," Mohs said. "We are also concerned at the same time that some are gradually losing patience with the stay-at-home order. We are seeing some relaxing of social distancing measures that is maybe not the best for everybody involved."
She asked county residents to maintain social distancing, to wash hands regularly, wear face masks and to stay home if sick, and work from home if possible. Due to other states opening up major sections of their economies, Mohs said, the University of Washington's COVID-19 model had produced revised projections, increasing its estimates to 134,000 deaths in the U.S. by early August.
Laurie Snegosky, who is acting as the incident commander for the county's emergency response, said public health was working to increase the availability of testing. Drive-thru testing is now available in the county by appointment at Hutchinson Health and Glencoe Regional Health.
Public health is coordinating with local services and businesses.
"We are working with our local dental offices ... to find out what personal protection equipment they need to safely reopen," she said. "We are currently continuing to plan with our long-term care congregate living facilities and are no longer focused on if they will be affected. We know that they will be effected, so we are planning for worst-case scenarios there to make sure that we can meet the needs of the residents of those facilities."
Minnesota Department of Health is still in charge of testing results and responding to them, but the county is working with the agency to find ways to provide more help locally. One item of discussion is the best way to provide daily follow-up calls with those in quarantine.
McLeod County Emergency Management director Kevin Mathews said the county is planning for the worst but hoping for the best. One potential issue the county is planning for is the possibility of danger to migrant workers who will be in the county soon. The county is also seeking federal reimbursement for its expenses. At this point, it has received a $7,051 grant to help with its COVID-19 response.
