Beeson updates county supervisors on COVID cases
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors has issued its support for potential federal funding for work on the 250th Street bridge in Grant Township.
County engineer Karen Albert said her office was recently notified by U.S. Congresswoman’s Cindy Axne’s office about the availability of funding for the project.
“We were informed that Axne is allowed to submit up to 15 projects to the budget committee this year for possible funding, and as part of the application process, we need a letter of support for the project,” Albert said.
In addition, Albert said she has received an additional seven letters from community members in regards to the project to be submitted along with a letter from the supervisors.
The letter would be submitted directly to Axne’s office. The supervisors unanimously approved the submission of a letter of support for potential funding for the 250th Street bridge project.
The supervisors also received a new update on COVID-19 cases in the county. In recent months, COVID-19 has been largely in the rearview mirror and the majority of mask mandates have been lifted, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still an impact being felt in Iowa and across the U.S.
While other areas are seeing spikes, Montgomery County Public Health Coordinator Samantha Beeson said the county’s numbers are extremely low at this time.
“We’ve had two new cases in the last 14 days, one new case in the last seven days, and no cases in the last three days,” Beeson said.
However, based on changes to reporting, Beeson said the numbers presented are as accurate as she can make them.
“The reporting process for Montgomery County continues to be limited, as we are no longer contact tracing cases as we follow the state’s procedures. There are also many over the counter test kits sold at pharmacies and retail stores that do not get reported to the state, so the numbers may not reflect the most accurate count. However, of the reported cases through my office, our numbers are very low.” Beeson explained.
Vaccination numbers continue to rise, though Beeson said older county residents are the ones most actively getting vaccinated.
“For kids five and over, we’re at a 56.3% total vaccination rate. For 12 and over it’s at a 60% vaccination rate. Kids 18 and over are at a 68.1% vaccination rate, while our 65 and older population has a vaccination rate of 93.5%,” commented Beeson.
For any county residents who feel they may have been afflicted by COVID-19, but who didn’t take a COVID-19 test, Beeson said there are options through her office that will allow them to know for sure whether they’ve had it or not.
“We are offering blood draws to test for antibodies at the office, and that will determine if the person has contracted COVID-19, only experienced mild symptoms, and then recovered from it. There is a $15 charge for this,” stated Beeson.
Also, Beeson said free COVID-19 vaccines still remain available through multiple locations around the Red Oak community.
“Pfizer vaccines can be found at HyVee in Red Oak and The Methodist Physician’s Clinic. Moderna vaccines can be found at the Methodist Physician’s Clinic, Red Oak Internal Medicine and Hy-Vee. The vaccine is available for ages 5 and up. Booster doses are available for 18 and older. The second booster is available for ages 50 and older.”