The recent push of coronavirus cases has taxed workers at Lyon County Public Health like perhaps no other time in the eight-month-old pandemic. An increase in around 500 active cases over the past three weeks, coupled with not enough staff to meet the demand, will do that.
On KVOE’s 8:05 am newscast Tuesday, Health Officer Renee Hively says contact tracing is one area that’s severely short-staffed, based on available employee numbers and the current virus spread.
Hively says plans to enlist the state for additional personnel have also gone by the wayside — because the state is overloaded as well.
Meanwhile, Public Health is pleased with the new tracking dashboard that made its debut Monday. Public Health is moving away from manual data counting, which the agency says could lead to redundancies or inconsistencies in cases like patients getting routed to different counties. By using Epitrax, Public Health says the county database will be “substantially more accurate and precise.” Data manager Kate Monroe-Segobia says this should eventually reduce the “data flux” that was evident in the transition from the old dashboard to the new one.
The dashboard demonstrated an increase in 64 new cases and 63 active cases from Saturday to Monday.
Looking ahead to Thanksgiving, Hively urged people to stay safe and she asked residents to avoid gatherings until there is a usable vaccine.
