County, CSKT unite in virus response efforts

Flathead County and the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes are joining forces in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two governments on April 10 entered into an agreement to create a unified command center to fight the virus. Lake County Commissioner Bill Barron and Chairwoman Shelly R. Fyant of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes signed a delegation of shared authority during a meeting at the tribal council chambers. The signing was held without a crowd to respect social distancing.

The command center will be led by two incident commanders.

Barron said he was on board with the idea of a shared incident command as soon as the plan was floated.

“I think it’s important that people in our respective areas see that we’re working together. Issues like this pandemic don’t see jurisdictions, they don’t have jurisdictional lines … so it only makes sense that we’re working together. This delegation of shared authority is huge, in my eyes.”

“The more that the tribe and county can work together on issues as critical as this, the better off all of our residents will be,” Fyant said.

The two concluded the signing with an “air high-five” from across a table.

As of Tuesday, Lake County had five confirmed cases of COVID-19.

According to Lake County Public Health, local providers had submitted 290 specimens for testing. Of those, 276 were negative and nine were pending.

The health department explained the process it follows when following up on a case:

“When we are notified of a reportable disease, Lake County Public Health or CSKT Tribal Health nurses follow up to learn more details about the recently identified individual and to identify anyone who may have been in close contact with the patient,” the department stated in a note to the public. “Public/Tribal health then follows up with the identified contacts to appropriately educate, test and treat, when applicable.

“It is our job to protect the anonymity of cases of any communicable disease, no information will be released to the public that could possibly identify the case.

“In the case of COVID-19, people who are concerned that they may have been exposed to a positive case but have not been contacted by the health department or developed symptoms do not need to be tested.”

Lake County has also created a COVID-19 Task Force, composed of eight local health-care groups:

•KRMC Polson Health

•Saint Joseph Medical Center

•St. Luke’s Community Healthcare

•CSKT Tribal Health

•Polson Health and Rehab

•Lake County Public Health Department

•Lake/CSKT Unified Command

•Local Emergency Medical Services

The Task Force meets twice weekly with sub-groups that meet more often for specific project related tasks.