Lyon County health officials are pleased with recent COVID-19 trends, but they aren’t quite ready to recommend any major changes to mitigation strategies.
Health Officer Dr. Ladun Oyenuga and Public Health Incident Commander Renee Hively had their latest update for Lyon County commissioners at their weekly action meeting Thursday. Hively says Public Health wants to go to what she calls an outbreak control approach as opposed to more community-wide measures, and she says data is an important component as the pandemic continues.
The discussion before Lyon County commissioners came shortly after Public Health Emergency Preparedness Director Jennifer Millbern appeared on KVOE’s Morning Show — and a little more than 12 hours after the Emporia Board of Education decided to make masks optional effective March 28. Millbern says the district has been making sound decisions through the pandemic, including the one Wednesday night on mask policy.
For now, and even with Public Health’s reports indicating 20 cases or less per data set recently, no changes are coming to the current recommendations — meaning mask use, social distancing and proper hand hygiene are all still recommended. Hively wants to see a general COVID season — much like what we see for the flu — before Public Health changes its overall approach to the pandemic.
