Joint Press Release
Take Precautions: Local COVID-19 Cases Continue to Rise
Dear Lac qui Parle County Community Members,
Our communities are currently experiencing a rapid rise in individuals testing positive for COVID-19. The area and state are suffering from the worst numbers of the Pandemic so far, with much higher positive cases and deaths per day than the previous peak in May. We would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone to continue to stay diligent with COVID-19 precautions and prevention measures. It has been a long road, but we can see the finish line. Lac qui Parle County COVID
Cases as of this article, Lac qui Parle sits at 412cases officially (1 in March, 1 in April, 1 in May, 1 in June, 6 in July, 14 in August, 69 in September, 80 in October, and 248in November). On November 23rd, the county high a high daily case record of 23. The county has had 4 identified deaths due to the disease. On the state level, deaths due to COVID-19 have averaged about 60 individuals a day over the past week, much higher than in previous months.
Seniors and Long-Term Care Facilities and Hospitals.
The elderly have a particular susceptibility to COVID-19 than other segments of the population. Nursing Homes and Care Centers have done great work in taking precautions to keep the disease out of their facilities and away from our family members. Our hospitals are busy and are having various staff shortages, but are holding their own. We need to ensure these resources remain as open as possible, as it would not take many hospitalizations to overwhelm the current capacities. Hospitalizations tend to be 2 to 3 weeks behind the testing, so we will likely see continued increases locally and across the state moving into December.
School Districts
Both Dawson-Boyd and Lac qui Parle Valley are working diligently with local Public Health and MDH on preventing the spread of the disease in students and staff. They are utilizing the state’s COVID-19 modeling tool to help decide when to move to distance learning, the hybrid model, or in person. The Dawson-Boyd has moved to a distance-learning model for all students as has Lac qui Parle Valley.
‘CDC’: Cover, Distance, Clean
An easy acronym to remember is CDC –Cover, Distance, Clean; Cover your face when you go out and about and are in close contact with other individuals with protective face coverings or shields. Keep a 6-foot distance between you and your co-workers and friends, socially distancing as much as possible. Clean and disinfect your hands and surfaces on a regular basis. We would like to thank all our responders, teachers, and hospital staff for the great work that they are doing, as well as our local businesses who have been struggling to deal with the orders and restrictions of doing business. We urge everyone to remain vigilant and protect themselves and others as the virus hits our area.
Working together, we will overcome this and be stronger in the years to come.
Sincerely,
- Allen Anderson, LqP County Sheriff
- Andy Stock, Dawson Police
- Ann Jenson, Dawson Ambulance
- Blain Johnson, LqP County Emergency Management
- Dawn Bjorgan, Countryside Public Health
- Erik Bjerke, Madison Healthcare Services
- Stacey Lee, Johnson Memorial Health Services
- Scott Schake, Madison Ambulance
- Todd Patzer, Chair-LqP County Board of Commissioners
