CCMSD still struggling to get rid of mask requirement

Federal mandates still dictate that a medical facility implement a mask policy if the risk of COVID-19 transmission is high. Crook County Medical Services District (CCMSD) has been hoping to drop the mask requirement for a couple of months now, but, so far, it’s been a no-go.

“We were able to get rid of masks for four whole days,” CEO Micki Lyons wryly commented last week.

Unfortunately, the county’s status then jumped back to red, which means “high community transmission”, before downgrading a step to orange.

If a county manages to remain at the orange level for 14 days, it can downgrade the alert status, Lyons explained.

“We made it to about day eight,” she said.

When asked about the latest studies regarding mask usage, Lyons told the board of trustees that the ongoing research into COVID-19 doesn’t have a direct effect on what the district can or cannot do in terms of infection management.

“Yes, there are studies out there, but we still have to follow the CDC guidance,” she said.

“The public emergency is supposed to end on May 11 and we’ll see what happens at that point, but in the meantime, that’s kind of our plan: we check it every day and as soon as we can maintain ‘not high’ for 14 days, then masks go away.”

COVID-19 may not be as much of a focus as it was this time last year, but it has not disappeared.

“We had a positive COVID-19 in the emergency room a couple of weeks ago and we have seen sporadic through the clinics and then we did have some COVID-19 in the nursing home over the last couple of weeks – so, it’s still here,” Lyons said.

On the other hand, she stressed that at this time there are no restrictions on visiting loved ones either in the long-term care unit or the main hospital.

“Visitation is open, people are just asked to wear masks while we’re in high transmission and away we go, continuing to provide care,” she said.