Dear Mitchell County Residents,
The holiday season has resulted in an increase in travel, gatherings, and risk of exposure. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 cases and deaths are continuing to rise across the United States, including 1,436,460 cases in the last 7 days as of January 3, 2021. While Mitchell County did see a slight decrease in cases over the last couple of weeks, we fully understand how quickly that can change for our community.
Over the next few weeks, we are expected to see the impact from the holidays on COVID-19 spread. We are continuing to highly encourage the use of masks, social distancing, frequent hand hygiene, disinfecting highly used surfaces often, and avoiding gatherings and crowds when possible. Furthermore, if you or a family member develops symptoms consistent with COVID-19, please stay home and distance from other individuals in your household if able to. While the distribution of the COVID vaccine is a crucial step forward for public health, the availability of the vaccine continues to remain limited. We are asking for everyone to continue to remain diligent in your efforts to reduce the spread of infection.
Many are aware of an outbreak impacting a local facility in our community. At this time, details are limited in order to protect private health information. With that being said, please know that efforts are in place to mitigate continued spread of infection and keep our community members as safe as possible. More information is expected be released as it becomes available.
Lastly, we are continuing to receive many questions regarding when the COVID vaccine will be made available to the public. At this time, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has not released that information. With that being said, if you would like to be placed on the health department notification list, please do so by calling the Mitchell County Health Department at 785-738-5175. Reminder, per CDC and KDHE, the vaccine will be administered to priority groups first. Being placed on the notification list does not guarantee you will receive the COVID vaccine when the next allotment arrives.
Again, thank you to all of our health care workers and community members for their patience and vigilance. We understand it has been difficult and we appreciate the hard work by everyone.
Sincerely,
Cortney Murrow, Administrator
Mitchell County Health Department