Crawford County publishes re-opening guidance document

By Ted Pennekamp

The Crawford County Board of Health met on May 20 to discuss the COVID-19 update as it pertains to the re-opening of businesses in the county.

It was noted that the Board of Health would like to have local control and continue with a local health order now that taverns, restaurants, retail stores and other businesses have been re-opening in most of the state and Crawford County.

The county has been averaging one new COVID-19 case every day, said Health and Human Services Director Dan McWilliams. McWilliams said the county would like to continue with the health order but it has been found to not be enforceable. The county instead has issued a guidance document which is also not enforceable.

“This is not over (COVID-19 emergency),” said McWilliams. “There are still behaviors that are risky.” The Health and Human Services Department would like to see individuals and businesses follow the guidance document.

The guidance document involves a phased approach, said Public Health Educator Sonya Lenzendorf, who helped to develop the document.

Lenzendorf said the document involves a red phase, a yellow phase and a green phase all of which involve meeting certain benchmarks in order to move to the next (more lenient) phase of re-opening.

Data metrics will be assessed to move through re-opening phases. There will be an assessment at 14 days after implementation of Phase 1. If more than half of metrics are green and epidemiology criteria are not red, move to Phase 2. Epidemiology involves new cases, doubling time of cases, the percentage of tests that are positive, and testing levels. As of May 18, two of the four epidemiology benchmarks were red. One was yellow and one was green. Assessment should be made at 14 days after implementation of Phase 2. If more than half the metrics in Crawford County are green, move to Phase 3. If criteria are not met after 14 days, assess regularly until criteria are met. Continue in Phase 3 until widespread protections are available. 

One benchmark listed in the guidance document involves the percentage of positive tests. If 10 percent of the total tests averaged across the most recent 14-day period are positive, the phase is red. 

The yellow phase would be 5-10 percent positive and the green phase would be below 5 percent positive. 

Crawford County is in the green phase at 4.2 percent said Lenzendorf.

All recent benchmark metrics are as of May 18. The next phase evaluation date is June 1.

Another benchmark would be to have a goal of getting below a low incidence threshold of .5 new cases per day averaged over the most recent 14-day period. Green would be below 0.5 cases per day. Yellow would be between .5 to 2 cases per day. Red would be greater than 2 cases per day. Crawford County is in the yellow phase at 1.1 new cases per day as of the publication of the guidance document.

Another benchmark involves staffing supplies and staff facilitating adequate testing for disease control and surveillance with a goal of 34 tests per day for Crawford County (based on 209 tests per 100,000 state goal) averaged over the most recent 14-day period.

Green would be greater than 34 tests per day. Yellow is 20-33 tests per day. Red is below 20 tests per day. Crawford County is in yellow, averaging 27 tests per day.

Crawford County is in the green phase regarding the treatment of all patients without crisis care. Crisis care may involve a facility that is damaged or unsafe and non-patient areas are being used for care. Also, staff are unavailable or unable to adequately care for the volume of patients and critical supplies are lacking.

Crawford County is also in the green phase for stable or decreasing numbers of infected health care workers.

Crawford County is in the yellow phase at 81 percent for having all positive cases being reported and contacted quickly to facilitate rapid isolation and quarantine for disease control.

Crawford County is green at 19 percent regarding the proportion of contacted COVID-19 cases who don’t know where they could have gotten COVID-19 in the most recent 14-day period.

If more than half of the metrics are green and epidemiology criteria are not red, the health department will advise the community to move to the next phase. If criteria is not met, the health department will stay in the current phase until the next 14-day evaluation.

The full plan for Crawford County Moving forward can be found at www.crawfordcountywi.org.

Lenzendorf said the county recommends that restaurants and bars have a seating capacity of 25 percent as of the May 18 benchmark evaluation. People should maintain six feet apart and carryouts should be available at restaurants.

The county recommends no team sports.

For church services, during Phase 1, it is recommended that there be 25 percent of full capacity. For Phase 2, there should be 50 percent of capacity and for Phase 3, there should be 75 percent of capacity.

“While our goal is to keep our residents and communities safe and healthy, we are also committed to re-opening Crawford County in a way that protects our public’s health while also building a strong foundation for long-term economic recovery,” said the Crawford County Moving Forward guidance document. “Our local public health infrastructure is strong. We have built the capacity in our community to test, support isolate and quarantine, conduct prompt contact tracing, and ensure the health care system is equipped to handle surges in COVID-19 illness.

“However, we must not reopen too quickly or without the tools in place to minimize the spread of the virus. Doing so could threaten the progress we’ve made and have more significant health and economic consequences. This plan is meant to aid Crawford County Public Health and everyone who lives, learns, works, prays, and plays in Crawford County to think about when and how various community-level activities can be reopened, along with when and how mitigation strategies may need to be reinstated. This document is not meant to replace state or federal guidance but rather to supplement it with localized data and considerations. We will use this plan to think through situations specific to our own community.”