Social Services Director, Shannon Ernst, reported to the Board of Health on Wednesday that the COVID testing and vaccines have slowed considerably in the past couple of weeks. The positivity rate has stayed low, hovering around 4%, and county staff continues to push for people to test in order to keep the positivity rate down. “We’re only seeing 12-15 new individuals a day for the vaccine,” she said. “The more vaccines we get in people, the more open we will stay.”
Vaccines are given at the Miners Road Vaccine POD (Point of Delivery) on Tuesdays from noon to 4:00 p.m., Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tests are given on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, in hopes that results come back before the weekend.
Ernst’s staff has been holding “pop-up” vaccine sites at Middlegate and Oasis Academy, as well as the homebound vaccines which are given five days a week. On June 8, her department will provide 200 vaccines to Stockman’s Casino’s sister property in Incline Village.
There has been a total of 2,072 positive cases of COVID in Churchill County since March of last year; currently, there are 10 active cases. Thirty-nine deaths have been attributed to COVID, and 1,968 people have recovered from the virus.
She also reported a total of $2.4 million received by the county for COVID-related activities. This includes the funding of the satellite lab being built by the county and the University of Nevada in the annex building at 485 West B Street.
In other business, Ernst reported on the grant program administered by her department to disburse $88,000 in marijuana tax revenue collected by the county last year. Brief reports are given quarterly by the organizations that are granted the funding and the next grant application opportunity will be in June.
The Churchill Community Coalition staff reported on their “Too Good for Drugs” program. The school district is running the intern program, along with the University of Nevada, it is a pilot project to provide mental health access to students and teachers. This is year three of the program and the district is planning to restart the program in the fall and extend the program into the elementary schools.
Jaime Shafer, in year two of the #WhyYouMatter campaign, reported on the activities of the program. The first year focused on photographs/portraits of students and teachers in the district displaying their messages explaining why they matter. The photos were hung at the Churchill County Library, throughout the community and published in the local newspaper. During the second year of the program, students and community members are invited to make Positivity Flags from a kit provided through the program. There have been 2,254 flag kits distributed, so far 820 have come back completed. The flags are currently hanging on display at the library and are also printed in the local paper. In addition, Lisa Erquiaga, director at the Pennington Life Center, sent 288 flag kits to seniors, delivered along with their food, as part of the Meals on Wheels program.
The next Board of Health meeting will be held on June 23 at 9:00 a.m.
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