Health Department: School district doing ‘everything it can’ to protect students, staff

Posted on January 27, 2021

The Taylor County School District is doing “everything it can” to protect students and staff during the current COVID pandemic, according to local Department of Health (DOH) officials.

“There really isn’t a lot the school isn’t doing that you could do. The main thing is really driving these things home – masks, washing hands, social distancing – and we all know that sometimes that’s like beating a dead horse…it goes in one ear and out the other,” Taylor County DOH Operations Manager Martine Young told members of the school board during their regular meeting last week.

“Just like all over the world, things have picked up in Taylor County. In the past several days, we have seen (positive) cases anywhere from 35 to five to 12 to 16 cases per day,” School Health Coordinator Kate Brooks said.

“That’s why, if you are calling the health department, you may be having trouble getting through. The contract tracers are relaying those messages to us, but things are busy as our cases are, unfortunately like all across the U.S., on the rise,” Young said.

“As it stands right now, Gov. (Ron) DeSantis has directed the health department administer the (COVID) vaccine to those 65 and older, as well as first responders who have direct contact with patients. As we receive more direction from him, we’ll up availability of the vaccine and go from there,” Brooks said.

“Taylor County is not alone in this. As far as the schools go, we have really had only about four percent of our cases in the five to 14 age group. In the 15-24 age group, it’s about 11 percent of the total cases. Of the positives (cases) we have seen in schools, not many have been from close contacts. It is mainly from someone in the household being positive, and the student becomes positive themselves,” she said.

“Since the (COVID) numbers in Taylor County are going up, are you going to be able to step up awareness in regards to masks, or what we can do as a community?” board member Deidra Dunnell asked.

“We still stand behind masking, staying home when you are sick, the CDC guidelines,” Young said.

“We get no type of funding for COVID. We make recommendations, but its about 50-50 on if people want to follow them.”

“Have you increased your staff? I had a parent who wanted to get her kids tested, and she said the health department couldn’t do it,” Dunnell said.

“We test twice a week at the health department. However, all of the local primary care providers, except for two, offer testing,” Young said.

“Is anybody testing every day?” Dunnell asked.

“Little Pines Pediatrics has rapid tests, and I believe they are offering services to family members of students or patients,” Brooks said.

“An employee came to me who said she wanted to get the vaccine, but she is not 65 yet. Is there a way for school workers to get the vaccine?” Dunnell said.

“It is up to the Governor – we have to follow what he said. Adults 65 and older are still the priority,” Young said.

“We did send out an email to our employees letting them know that those 65 and older were eligible for the vaccines, and we had four or five from the district who responded,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Danny Glover Jr. said.

“Because we are such a small county, are the number of vaccine (doses) we receive going to be proportionate to our county’s population?” school board member Brenda Carlton asked.

“Yes, and that’s the best answer we’ve gotten from them about our supply. When we received our first shipment of 500 doses, we wondered if we would have 500 people in the county who would want the vaccine. Then they (call volume) took our phone system down, and we saw that there were a lot more people who wanted the vaccine than we thought. We wish it was a consistent number, but we really don’t find out until at the end of a week what we’ll be receiving the next week,” Young said.

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