SUBLETTE COUNTY– Sublette County health officials are spending this week doing interviews with local businesses to start the reopening process, as the state will be modifying their COVID-19 Coronavirus public health orders on May 1.
During the Sublette County COVID-19 Response Group update on Monday, Dr. Brendan Fitzsimmons, Sublette County Health Officer, said the state has started passing down COVID-19 restrictions for the counties to decide. However, he believes they will still be providing guidelines at the state level.
Dr. Fitsimmons said the interviews are a part of the process to look at the different plans to reopen, while maintaining public health and safety guidelines.
“We’ve done a lot of work, I really want to get these places open on Monday,” Dr. Fitzsimmons said.
Travis Bingham, COVID-19 Response Group PIO, noted that reopening is a process and will take time.
“It’s not like a light switch effect, it doesn’t just happen,” Bingham said.
Bingham said business owners can find more about OSHA guidelines for reopening at sublettewycovid.com/business.
Sublette County has had one confirmed positive case of COVID-19 and two probable cases, all of which are recovered now. According to Robin Carnes, Sublette County Public Health nurse, the Sublette County Health Clinic is monitoring five people and have four tests pending.
Though Sublette County has been quite successful in keeping the outbreak controlled, Fitzsimmons noted that Fremont County continues to have a lot of COVID-19 related issues.
“They are on our border,” he said. “There are reasons we still want to be deliberate and careful in opening things up. We’re not done with this yet.”
Bingham furthered the message of staying diligent and careful, due to neighboring counties’ issues with the virus.
“In the last three days, Fremont County has gotten 31 new cases, and Teton County is another one of our neighbors that keeps getting a rise. In the last week, our five newest deaths in the state were out of Teton and Fremont Counties, so it’s still very much around us. We still need to be very careful,” Bingham said.
Dr. Fitzsimmons said Sublette County is not looking at opening up public spaces such as the library as of yet, but they have had one discussion about opening the Pinedale Aquatic Center. He believes more discussions will take place throughout the week.
He believes there will be changes made to the previous closures of county offices later this week.
As businesses start opening up, there is a need for childcare. However, Carnes said there is currently nothing coming from the state that says childcare will be opened up as non-essential workers go back to work.
Carnes said she has pushed it up the chain to the state nursing supervisor to look at. She assured Sublette County residents that they are working on this.
Watch the full Sublette County COVID-19 Response Group’s update below.
