To prevent or respond to pandemic, county gets more than $1 million – which must be repaid if not used

At press time Tuesday, no positive cases of the COVID-19 virus had been reported in Ozark County, according to Ozark County Health Department administrator Rhonda Suter, but soon the county will be getting federal funds to spend on protection from the virus or for responding to it if and when it arrives here.  Ozark County Commissioners at their regular weekly meeting Monday discussed how the county might use the $1,076,293 it will receive as its portion of the more than $2 trillion in federal funds appropriated by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) act, which was passed by Congress on March 27. 

Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick said in a Monday news release that the money is being distributed “to Missouri’s local governments as efficiently as possible. Now our counties must work with cities and other political subdivisions to ensure that this money reaches those on the front lines – our health departments, healthcare workers and first responders – to ensure they have the necessary resources to adequately respond to COVID-19.”  

Presiding Commissioner John Turner told the Times after the meeting that the county has been notified of the amount it will be getting, based on its population of 9,174, but no funds have been received yet. 

And the money comes with a catch, Turner said. 

“We’re supposed to pay out of that money for anything we do to combat or ward off coronavirus – the health department, ambulance district, sheriff’s department, any county office that deals with it. Whatever those departments spend extra, on account of coronavirus, they can ask the county treasurer, with the right paperwork, to reimburse them to cover those expenses,” Turner said. “But what we don’t use, we have to return. We don’t get to keep it. We can’t use it for budget shortfalls or pay ourselves what sales tax we might have gotten if coronavirus hadn’t hit.”

Turner expressed doubt that the county would spend the amount allotted to it. “But we can keep the interest on it, so that helps,” he said.

As examples, he noted that if the worker who currently provides the courthouse cleaning service is asked to work additional hours to do extra cleaning during the pandemic, “wiping down doorknobs more frequently and things like that,” the county would need to keep track of those extra hours separately from her regular wages. “Or if the sheriff’s department or the ambulance needs to spend $10,000 for personal protective equipment, anything like that that’s run through the county,” Turner said. “We’ll keep good books and keep the paperwork in order and account for every dollar spent.”

Another example of how the funds might be spent was described by OCHD registered nurse Bonnie Peter, who told the Times Monday how the health department here had responded when the Taney County Health Department notified OCHD that a Taney County resident who later tested positive for COVID-19 had visited Cash Saver Pantry and Theodosia Hardware in Theodosia on April 25 and also visited the Pioneer Store in Protem on April 22, 23, 24 and 27.

Peter said she spent “a full eight-hour day” working on the case. She offered to help the Taney County Health Department do contact tracing to help notify those who might have come in contact with the COVID patient in the stores. “Instead, she asked me to contact the businesses and make them aware that someone had come in who later tested positive,” she said. 

Peter told the store managers that store employees did not need to self-quarantine at that time, but she stressed the signs and symptoms to watch for and directed them in how to clean their business areas with  a CDC-approved list of disinfectants that are effective against the virus. 

She also fielded several calls from people in the area who had questions. “They had visited those stores and had questions about possible contact and testing,” she said.

Peter consulted with state authorities before responding to some of the callers’ questions to make sure she relayed accurate information, she said. 

She also said the health department stays in touch with “people here who have been exposed to the virus but have no symptoms. They have to self-quarantine, and we follow them. We call them and ask questions: ‘Are you still without symptoms?’ That kind of thing,” she said.

Another OCHD nurse, Brenda Hambelton, “gets the reports from the clinics here [in Ozark County] and keeps track of all the numbers,” Peter said.  

Turner said he believes that OCHD expenses for this kind of work related to the pandemic can be paid for with the CARES funds. The state “will give us more guidelines as the weeks progress,” he said.

Guidelines for reopening

At Monday’s commissioners meeting OCHD administrator Rhonda Suter noted that, although the state is “reopening,” guidelines are still in place to help stop the spread of the virus. She stressed that “everyone still needs to wash their hands.” 

Another personal requirement is that individuals maintain 6 feet of space between each other unless they are family members or they work in a job that requires closer contact. In those cases, “enhanced precautionary measures” are to be taken. 

 Suter said OCHD has been in touch with the county’s restaurants to ensure they are either remaining closed to dine-in customers or that their dining-area tables are spaced at least 6 feet apart.

She told the commissioners there are three levels of “enforcement” for the guidelines. First, she said, the business owner needs to take precautions so that both employees and customers are safe. The second level, she said, is for customers and employees to be alert to unsafe conditions. In many cases, she said, simply speaking to the owner or manager can bring about a solution. The third level of enforcement, Suter said, is notifying the health department, which will investigate the inquiries and, as a last resort, may get law enforcement involved to correct a situation where customers’ or workers’ health is threatened.

Tuesday COVID-19 counts

While Ozark County still has not had a positive case of COVID-19 reported, the DHSS website (health.mo.gov) reported Tuesday morning that Missouri has had 8,386 cases (1,215 more than last week) with 288 deaths (64 more than last week). These numbers have been reported for adjoining counties: Howell County, five positive cases, no deaths (unchanged from last week); Taney County, 12 positive cases (2 more than last week) and two deaths (one more than last week); Baxter County, Arkansas, five positive cases, no deaths (unchanged). Nationwide (including District of Columbia, Guam, Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), 1,152,352 cases (an increase of 194,477 since last week) and 53,922 deaths (14,534 more than last week)  had been reported.