The Carroll County Board of Supervisors received a COVID-19 status update from Emergency Management Coordinator, Sara Anderson, on Thursday morning. A couple of specific issues came to the forefront. The first was introduced by Supervisor, Gene Meiners, and Sheriff, Ken Pingrey. Meiners says he has heard from residents who are seeing a lot of license plates from other counties in Carroll. Hand-in-hand with that are questions about the testing results and a current proposal being discussed by Gov. Kim Reynolds on opening businesses in areas with lower positive cases. Pingrey voiced his concerns.
Anderson said some areas of the state are already reporting this type of problem.
The supervisors agreed we need to reopen the economy, but that it needs to be based on the advice of healthcare experts and not the economic development leaders. Their main goal is to ensure the safety of our citizens first. Anderson then advised that she had been working with area funeral directors to address more uniformity in their services.
This particular service also limited the number of family members at the gravesite to 10. But a neighboring county had more than 150 in attendance outside and the mourners were allowed to follow to the cemetery and stand by their cars. They also had an additional 12 members of the military and 10 family members spread out at the gravesite. The first family lodged a complaint about the disparity. Anderson said a meeting of a funeral home directors association resulted in a recommendation that Emergency Management be contacted about the protocols to be used. She, however, was unaware that she was included in this directive. She said she did not believe they could really change any of the recommendations at viewings, wakes and ceremonies in enclosed spaces of no more than 10 family members at one time. However, she saw no problem with allowing mourners to travel to the cemetery and stand outside their vehicles while maintaining the minimum six-foot physical distancing. Anderson also provided an update on the county’s supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) and says acquiring disposable gowns is the biggest issue right now. They have jumped from a pre-pandemic price of thirty-five to fifty cents each to up to $10. She has requested more gowns from the state and has received 400. Carroll County Public Health has received an additional $11,000 in grants and they will be using that for safety goggles instead of face shields as they are having fogging issues with the shields.
