COVID 19 vaccinations continue to roll out in Grand Forks County, but the allocated number of doses is limited and the process of immunizing county residents could stretch into the fall.
According to the Department of Health’s COVID-19 vaccine dashboard, 35,250 doses of vaccine have been received, of which 22,241 have been administered. In Grand Forks County, at least 2,439 people have received their first dose, and some in the first tier of priority soon will be receiving the second. This week, Grand Forks Public Health will receive 200 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and another 100 doses of Moderna’s vaccine. The two are the only approved vaccines currently on the market.
Director of Public Health Debbie Swanson told members of the Grand Forks County Commission, at the commission's regular meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 5, the supply of vaccine will increase by summer, with enough likely becoming available for each resident by fall.
“Unfortunately we won't see our masks go away anytime soon because it will take us a number of months to get through the population,” Swanson said.
GFPH receives a notification from the state Health Department each Friday about how many doses are available to the county, and officials have 24 hours to accept or decline those doses, Swanson said. She said her department would not decline doses, since it has the ability to administer them efficiently.
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In total there are 23 locations in the county, including Altru Hospital, UND, other health care institutions and long-term care facilities, that receive the vaccines. Those institutions are able to vaccinate people who fall into the top tier of phase 1A of the state’s vaccine rollout plan. That tier includes health care workers who come into direct contact with COVID-19, first-responders and residents and staff at long-term care facilities.
Swanson, in an email to the Herald before Tuesday’s meeting, said she doesn’t know how long it will take to reach the second tier, where older people, child care workers, people with health conditions and others will be eligible to receive the vaccine.
“This is highly dependent on the number of doses that are allocated to public health and community partners by the North Dakota Department of Health,” she wrote.
Swanson’s presentation was followed by one by Michael Dulitz, who is doing COVID data analysis for the Health Department. Dulitz said the county is mostly moving in the right direction, though there has been a small spike in cases likely resulting from gatherings over the Christmas holiday. Grand Forks County, he said, is seeing about 17 positive cases per day, up from the low point of 14 cases per day, which marked the dramatic turnaround from from a mid-November increase that saw cases skyrocket and stretch capacity at Altru Hospital. About 10 people are hospitalized at Altru for COVID-19 at present, Dulitz said.
In other commission news:
–Commissioners agreed to amend the term of a grant that freed up funds to hire nurses for rural schools . The funding was meant to run from October 2020 until Sept. 30, 2021, but has been extended to continue through the calendar year. Swanson asked the commissioners to make the adjustment so some rural schools could have a school nurse for the entire year. Swanson noted it had been difficult to hire nurses for rural schools, and for the County Correctional Center as well. Her department has been using its own staff to backfill those roles .
–Commissioners voted to accept the county’s new hazard mitigation plan. The plan was last updated in 2015, and needs to be updated every five years. The plan is required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in order for municipalities to receive funding to carry out construction projects that aim to reduce the impact of repetitive damage from natural disasters, such as flooding.
