By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Three medical professionals from Hutchinson painted a bleak picture of the COVID-19 spread among residents during Tuesday’s County Commission meeting. For now, they feel they have the capacity to handle the situation, but they don't want that to change.
With that information, the County Commission rescinded its own ordinance regarding mask-wearing, thus putting the governor’s mandate in place. Reno County Health Department Director Nick Baldetti said that, while he is not one to make demands on the public, the rapidly increasing number of positive cases of COVID-19 is forcing him to do so.
“The actions we take now are only going to see the ramifications three or four weeks down the road,” Baldetti said. “I think, as you’ve heard from everyone who spoke today, that certainly we’re trending in the wrong direction.”
Baldetti was joined by Dr. Rex Degner of Hutchinson Regional Medical Center, Dr. Regina Johnson of Prairie Star Health Center and Dr. Scott Pauly of the Hutchinson Clinic. All three talked about rapidly increasing numbers and the percentage of positive cases per tests is jumping above 10%. Pauly noted that the numbers currently in the county are now above where they were when schools and businesses were shut down.
“We are in a situation where we thought we didn’t want to be back in April, in May,” Pauly said. “To the point where the governor was closing schools, at the point, we were closing up shop, restaurants were closed. We do need to flatten the curve, but I think we’re at a more critical junction now than we were then.”
As far as the ability for the hospital to care for the increasing numbers, Degner says they are currently able to handle anything that comes their way at this time.
“We have a plan that is very scalable for a surge that we have developed,” Degner stressed. “We still feel we’ll be able to staff this up and scale this up should we need to.”
Degner says they also have enough PPE to keep them going at a constant 60 to 90 day supply.
Not all of the commission was in agreement with the mandate. During the discussion, Commissioner Ron Hirst questioned the ability to enforce the mandate and asked Sellers about not wearing a mask, which was met with a blunt response.
“I think you’re making a statement to the community about how you feel about the community to be quite blunt,” Sellers said. “If you don’t want the community to prosper, for kids to go to school in a month, don’t wear your mask.”
Hutchinson Mayor Jade Piros de Carvalho also stressed that small businesses in the city are becoming concerned over the lack of mask-wearing as they want to protect both their business and their staff.
Several others spoke out against the mandate saying it wasn’t necessary.
The vote was 2-1 with Commissioner Ron Hirst voting no.