City council seeks experts’ advice on COVID-19 situation

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Editor’s note: This is the first article in a two-part report regarding the Brookings City Council’s Tuesday discussion on extending the city’s current COVID-19 regulations and mask mandate. Up next is a report on the council’s first reading on the proposed extension with comments from the public.

BROOKINGS – The Brookings City Council heard from health care and education professionals on COVID-19 and the city’s regulations and mask mandate during its study session Tuesday. Study sessions are informational only; no vote is taken.

Ordinance 20-010, which without an extension will expire Nov. 7, regulates bars, restaurants, salons and retail, and requires face coverings for indoor businesses and indoor public spaces.

If the area experiences a surge in COVID-19 cases, the hospital might not be able to handle all the patients, said Jason Merkley, president and CEO of Brookings Health System.

In addition to Merkley, other local professionals who spoke included epidemiologist Bonny Specker; Klint Willert, superintendent of Brookings School District; Amy Hockett, Sanford RN Clinic director; Patrick Siegling, Avera Clinic director; South Dakota State University President Barry Dunn; and Daniel Scholl, vice president for SDSU’s Division of Research and Economic Development. 

One thing all of them recommended was to wear masks, wash hands and social distance to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Kelsey Doom, president of the Brookings Area Chamber of Commerce, gave information from a survey the Chamber conducted.

Specker pointed out all the data presented was for Brookings County, not just the City of Brookings. It was mentioned several times during the meeting that the state Department of Health does not break down COVID-19 statistics any further than that. 

Specker gave information on the case statistics, including that those most likely to get very sick and need hospitalization are people age 60 and above.

“The outbreak is not under control, and there are a lot of unidentified cases within the community,” she said.

Willert said the COVID plan developed by the district – Bobcat Tracks – is working and “providing a safe and healthy learning environment” because the district currently only has five active COVID cases requiring isolation, and 10 individuals who are in quarantine. With more than 3,300 students and 620 staff, “we are presenting a positive infection rate of less than one-tenth of 1% of our current school population. When we add in our quarantine population, we are below four-tenths of 1%,” Willert said. 

“We know we’ve just begun the very first mile of a very long marathon,” he cautioned.

“The Brookings School District is committed to continuous improvement and as a result I’ve been committed to working with all the facts versus opinions,” Willert said. 

“Every day we remain in school, our students win, our staff wins, our community wins,” Willert said.

Because the data is county-wide, Willert could not say how Brookings was faring as compared to other school districts.

Merkley wanted to clarify capacity and bed management plan for Brookings Health System.

“We have been very public and transparent in our bed management plan for our capacity numbers,” he said, adding it’s posted on the hospital’s website and has been published in the Register.

“What we are counting here is really just COVID positive in-patients within our facility,” he said.

“As of today, we’re back down to five,” Merkley said.

The hospital can handle 80 patients physically within the facility; “what we don’t have is the staff,” he said.

BHS has a plan for handling COVID patients.

“Masks help stop the spread; wear and encourage use,” Merkley said, adding people should practice good hygiene. Events and group sizes need to be managed, and social distancing needs to be practiced.

“Take responsibility for yourself and others,” Merkley said.

Councilor Ope Niemeyer asked if BHS has sent any patients out of town.

Hospital staff meets twice a day, because admissions and dismissals are so fluid.

“We have sent people down to Sioux Falls,” Merkley said. “We would send the sickest of the sick, if you will, down the road.”

Sioux Falls has specialists, like cardiologists, pulmonologists, that Brookings doesn’t have and some COVID patients need.

Councilor Leah Brink asked what the average length of stay was.

It varies on how sick they are and how well they respond to treatments, Merkley said.

“If somebody gets on a (ventilator) … they’re gonna be there for a long time,” he said.

What Brookings is seeing is not as serious as that, Merkley said.

“So they come in and get out fairly quickly … but not all the time,” he said.

Brink asked if there was anything the council could do to encourage people to get tested.

“Our main challenge at Brookings Health System is supply chain, so we’re not getting the testing kits allocated to us in a timely manner,” Merkley said, adding it’s a problem nation-wide. “Everybody’s out of supply kits.”

Councilor Patty Bacon asked about the turnaround time on COVID tests; hers was eight days in July. 

It depends on the type of test, Merkley said. Testing sent off is two to three days; “point of care is more like 15-30 minutes,” he said.

Councilor Holly Tilton Byrne asked if BHS was limited by the types of services it can provide, like intubation.

“We don’t have here physically some of those critical care providers that they have down in Sioux Falls,” Merkley said.

BHS also doesn’t have the space for those patients.

“If we do run out of space, it would be similar to what you saw way back in March or April in New York where you just don’t have opportunities to be able to send them to different places,” Merkley said, adding the COVID surge is happening in many other states and places, and South Dakota is no different than Minnesota, North Dakota or Iowa. “We’re trying to get people to the right locations so they can be cared for.”

Councilor Nick Wendell asked if BHS is accepting patients from smaller hospitals.

“The answer is yes … we want to try to care for our region,” Merkley said.

Hockett said her facility was seeing COVID-positive patients with pneumonia, ongoing shortness of breath, and blood clots.

“Over the last two weeks, it’s picked up a lot, and it’s all different types of patients that we’re seeing … with no chronic conditions,” Hockett said. 

Addressing the complaints about masks, she said the staff at Sanford has worn masks since March, getting coughed on while they work with sick patients. 

“And none of our employees have tested positive for COVID,” Hockett said. “It does work.”

She asked that the public think of the nurses and protect them.

“We don’t want to see the town shut down; I don’t think anyone does,” Hockett said. 

Siegling echoed what Merkley and Hockett said.

“Locally (we’ve had) our highest month of positive cases in October, and we’re just about two-thirds of the way through,” he said.

We’re looking at a rising number of cases, he said.

With the weather getting colder, “likely the situation is gonna get busier for us,” he said. 

“Eventually, there will come a day when we can let our guard down … I would advocate that today is probably not that day,” Siegling said.

Dunn said SDSU is proud to be part of the community and is dependent on the community. 

“As the largest employer in the community and the host of over 11,000 students, we play a large and important role in the economy of the Brooking community,” Dunn said.

They’ve worked very hard since having to close the campus last spring and are hopeful they can finish the semester just before Thanksgiving, he said.

Scholl spoke about the economic impact COVID has, especially if SDSU has to cancel in-person classes. If students are sent home, they are not spending money in Brookings or surrounding communities. 

Tilton Byrne asked whether the next semester would have breaks like usual, if SDSU is anticipating a COVID surge after those breaks, and how can the community prepare for a post-spring break surge.

“We’ve got to get to Thanksgiving and then start planning on how to handle the next semester. We’re not out of this yet,” Dunn said. 

“We’ll probably see a surge in January after they come back from the holidays because you’re just bringing thousands of people back to campus from all across the country,” Scholl said.

Doom said the Chamber of Commerce has been conducting surveys and presented the results of one question posed to businesses.

“When asked the question, if conditions remain the same as they are now, with the restrictions in place, how long will you be able to keep your doors open?, 11.7% of the respondents told us they would need to close their doors within three months and 14.9% told us they would last less than six months,” she said.

Tilton Byrne asked if the businesses felt it was the current ordinances causing the problem or if people weren’t shopping because they’re receiving less money in their paychecks or folks who are not as active in public.

Doom said the question only asked, “if conditions remain the same.”

“I would be happy to ask the question in more detail in our additional surveys that we’re gonna continue to do over the fall season,” Doom said.

It would be helpful to understand what is impacting people’s businesses the most, Tilton Byrne said.

Niemeyer asked which businesses were hurting the worst.

“I would say it’s been really surprising,” Doom said. “There are some restaurants that are doing much better right now. There are some retailers that are doing worse; there are some retailers that are doing better.”

“If there’s a way the community can help them … somehow support them to help them get through this also,” Niemeyer said.

Brink asked if the Chamber tracks businesses that close or don’t renew memberships during a crisis like this, and if Doom could provide that information in the future. Doom said she would.

Tilton Byrne asked how many businesses responded and if there was a type of business that tended to respond more to the survey.

They typically get responses from 80 to 200 businesses, Doom said. 

“This past survey was mostly food and retail responding to it,” she said.

Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.