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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHealth Board - Minutes - 12/14/2021Bayfield County Health Department 117 East Sixth Street - P.O. Box 403 - Washburn, WI 54891 Phone: 715/373-6109 Fax: 715/373-6307 Sara Wartman, BSN, RN, CLS Director / Health Officer BAYFIELD COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING Tuesday, December 14, 2021 – 5:00 PM Present: Fred Strand, Jeremy Oswald, Tom Snilsberg, David Zepczyk, Terri Kramolis, Mary Dougherty, Elaine Kopp, Deb Dryer, Ellen Braddock Staff: Amy Jarecki, Sara Wartman, Becki Nelles 1.Call the Meeting to Order : The meeting was called to order at 5:00 p.m. by Chairman Oswald. 2.Approval October 19 , 2021, Meeting Minutes : A motion to approve the October 19, 2021 meeting minutes was made by Kopp; motion seconded by Strand. Motion carried. 3.Public Comment : Brandon Lende, Town of Barksdale resident, who was present at the last Board of Health meeting, is asking the Board of Health to tailor their Covid messages to specific age groups as the local schools rely heavily on this information. He is suggesting that the Health Department put out a fact sheet specific to school aged children. Lende shared some Covid statistics from the CDC website. 4.Situational Update and Discussion Regarding COVID-19 Recovery Phase & COVID-19 Vaccination Clinics : COVID-19 cases in the county has plateaued for the moment. There are Covid outbreaks in every school in the county. There have been two children hospitalized, five deaths and several persons hospitalized within the last few weeks. Hospitals in and around the area are sharing that they are full at the moment due to the number of Covid patients. Wartman recommended that everyone should follow the CDC Covid guidelines which includes wearing a mask, regardless of vaccination status. The Delta variant is the dominant variant in the area. We do not have confirmation of the Omicron variant being in the area. Booster doses are now being recommended for the 16-17 year olds and this has been approved by the Department of Health. The Health Department will be holding a small Covid vaccine clinic for the 5-11 year olds and anyone wanting a Moderna vaccine. Red Cliff, Ashland County and Brownstone Pharmacy are all offering Covid vaccine clinics this month as well. The next clinic the Health Department will be offering will be held in Iron River. Both Moderna and Pfizer vaccines will be available. Walk-ins are welcome at this clinic. The Wisconsin National Guard has taken a break from providing our Covid testing for the area. The Health department has started to offer some testing when staffing is available. Dr. Dryer shared that there have been a number of county residents who get a positive Covid test via a rapid at-home test. Those positive tests are not counted in the numbers provided online by the Wisconsin Department of Health. Bayfield County Health Department 117 East Sixth Street - P.O. Box 403 - Washburn, WI 54891 Phone: 715/373-6109 Fax: 715/373-6307 Sara Wartman, BSN, RN, CLS Director / Health Officer 5.Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Resolution to Accept This-WIC G rant: Bayfield County Health Department has received grant funding in the amount of $5,492.00 from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. This will allow WIC staff to pilot an online nutrition education platform that will enhance virtual clinic visits. Grant start date is October 1, 2021. Total award to be expended by December 31, 2022. A motion was made to recommend the award to the full County Board by Kopp; motion seconded by Dougherty. Motion carried. 6.Update on Health Department Programs and Services : The Health Department continues to divert a lot of the staffing time and effort to assist with the Covid situation. The Environmental Health program is still one of the strongest programs at the moment. We investigated the possibility of using of a company to help identify unlicensed tourist rooming houses, but the cost outweighed the benefit. There has been a lot of inspections done of tourist rooming houses around the county. The well water program has pretty much wrapped up for the year. The department is looking into expanding its testing capability. A grant was applied for to be a community testing site and receive reimbursement for each test completed. The Health department is looking to expand the Family Planning/Reproductive Health program. A limited term employee, Allissa Dahlgren, has been hired to run the program and there was a site visit conducted by the state. The site visit went well. The Health Department is partnering with Emergency Management on a cooling/heating shelter program. The WIC (Woman, Infant, children) program is still seeing clients remotely due to a federal waiver from the USDA on in-person meetings. They are able to work with clients via tele-health. Flu activity is starting to pick up in the area. There is still flu vaccine available and will be offered at the next vaccine clinic. 7.Update on Health Department Staffing: The Health Department has hired a temporary full time nurse to work in the Reproductive Health program through the end of March. She is also helping with the Covid vaccine clinics and testing. 8.Committee Input : None 9.Next Meeting Date : Tuesday, February 8, 2021, 5:00 pm, in the Bayfield County EOC and remotely via Teams. 10.Adjourn : The meeting adjourned at 5:49 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Amy Jarecki Amy Jarecki, Office Manager Bayfield County Health Department 117 East Sixth Street - P.O. Box 403 - Washburn, WI 54891 Phone: 715/373-6109 Fax: 715/373-6307 Sara Wartman, BSN, RN, CLS Director / Health Officer