The Pierce County Public Health Department confirmed a COVID-19 outbreak at The Lodge at River Falls last week. As of last week’s meeting of the county Board of Health on Wednesday, August 12th, 23 cases were reported as part of this outbreak.

“Together with senior living leaders, we have been preparing for the possibility of outbreaks in our senior living communities,” said AZ Snyder, Health Officer. “Public Health is working closely with The Lodge at River Falls Comforts of Home staff to ensure everyone in the facility is closely monitored for symptoms. We have requested National Guard resources to assist with repeated testing in the facility to ensure we can identify any new cases quickly. Residents who have tested positive have been separated into a different wing of the building.” said Snyder.

The Public Health Department has ensured the assisted living facilities have prepared by implementing the following activities: All indoor visitors, volunteers and nonessential health care personnel have been restricted. All health care personnel are screened for fever and symptoms before each shift, and residents who must regularly leave the facility for medically necessary reasons are encouraged to wear a mask whenever they leave their room.

'Our leadership team is committed to serving our residents, their families, and staff,' said Gigi Chollett, CEO. 'Our team has responded bravely and compassionately to maintain aggressive infection control measures and proactive screening.”

As of Monday, the Pierce County Public Health COVID-19 Dashboard reported 38 active cases, raising the number to 239 total confirmed cases in Pierce County.

With the 2020-2021 school year looming, the already-busy Public Health Department has had their hands full making sure the schools are prepared.

At last week’s Public Board of Health meeting on Wednesday, the public was provided information on how the schools are being advised to prepare for the start of classes, start- ing with the University of Wisconsin-River Falls (UWRF).

“I talk with UWRF at least once a day, every day, including weekends,” Snyder reported. “We are working really hard putting together a memorandum of understanding to allocate three FTE’s (full-time employees) of UWRF staff to do contact tracing and case management for UWRF students this fall.”

Snyder reported the three individuals went through the first round of training to become contract tracers. The Public Health Department will still be doing the initial disease investigation, but after it is determined that the subject in question is a UWRF student, it will be pushed to UWRF staff for contract tracing.

“For testing, the UW system is working really hard on scaling up testing on campus,” Snyder reported, also saying that the goal is to make it as easy as possible for students to get tested. The University has signed a contract with a local hotel to make it easier for individuals that have been exposed to isolate themselves.

“They are also working really hard to educate students and staff to make sure they get tested if there are any symptoms,” Snyder relayed.

The Health Department is also working diligently with the school districts to prepare for the start of the K-12 school year. “For K through 12 school preparation, I wanted to share some of the things the school has shared with me,” Snyder stated before she mentioned that she has regularly met with the school nurses. “So, every single school district went through a two-hour meeting with Public Health to go through this reopening school building assessment tool.”

Every district had to answer the questions to the health department’s satisfaction. If they were unable to answer, technical assistance was provided in the form of templates, signs or policy procedure examples to help them become prepared.

Non-essential visitors will not be allowed entrance to the schools. Essential visitors will be screened and expected to wear face masks.

Snyder reported that all of the schools are prepared to educate students and staff on how to keep themselves and each other safe.

“They have to figure out a way to cohort, which is the practice of having small bubbles of students that may come into contact with each other, but not other students,” Snyder said. “That way, if we have to exclude one of the bubbles, we will not have to exclude all of the bubbles.”

All hands are on deck to make sure Pierce County students will have the opportunity to learn at a high level this school year.

National Guard will be onsite for COVID-19 testing

Mobile specimen collection teams from the Wisconsin National Guard will continue operations across Wisconsin – in River Falls – this week. They are supporting local health departments and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services effort to increase the state’s COVID-19 testing capacity.

The teams, which are tailorable to meet the needs of a specific facility, are dispatched from a larger task force of several hundred Citizen Soldiers and Airmen. They have been establishing mobile testing sites since early April at locations ranging from correctional facilities, health clinics and institutional facilities, to private businesses, senior-living facilities, and community-based testing sites.

After collecting the specimens at each site, the test kits are sent to a lab for analysis, and individual citizens receive their results via a phone call from their local health department or a state call center within three-to-seven days following the test.

One team was scheduled to gather specimens Aug. 18 at a long-term care facility in River Falls.