With COVID numbers surging, including nearly 1,100 new cases this month, Lyon County Public Health Emergency Preparedness Director Jennifer Millbern says staff are stretched thin as they try to meet community needs.
However, the community needs come at a time when Public Health has no help from the state. For about the first half of the pandemic, county public health departments could use National Guard personnel to help meet needs like vaccinations and testing and they could also use special resources like congregate housing at hotels for isolation and quarantine. That help disappeared last year when the state’s disaster declaration ended.
Lyon County Public Health is shifting contact tracing to the state as a way to reallocate local resources to meet demand.
On Friday, Lyon County Public Health announced another 200 new cases of COVID-19 in the county — pushing the pandemic total to 7,871 and meaning nearly a quarter of Lyon County’s total population of over 32,000 has had the virus since the pandemic started in March 2020. Active cases spiked to 697 Thursday before settling at 687 Friday, now Lyon County’s top two daily active case totals since the pandemic began. The week also featured the highest daily new caseload total — Monday at 147 — and the second-highest new caseload total per week at 488, second only to the 542 number from the week of Jan. 2.
