St. Anthony Regional Hospital President and CEO, Ed Smith, provided a COVID-19 update to the Carroll County Board of Supervisors. He says as of about two weeks ago, Carroll County Public Health (CCPH) had administered more than 12,400 vaccines.
St. Anthony and CCPH have been evaluating the county’s ability to meet President Biden’s goal of 70 percent of the population vaccinated by July 4.
Smith adds that the New York Times even listed Carroll County as a success story. He says CCPH early on partnered with Manning Regional Healthcare Center, the McFarland Clinic and the St. Anthony Clinic to get vaccines distributed. And most recently, they worked closely with schools in the county to get vaccination clinics set up once approval came through for those 12 and up. Smith says the collaboration with St. Anthony has actually saved the county nearly $67,000 in administration charges that would normally have been billed back to public health in a routine year. Both Smith and Supervisor, Dean Schettler, say the healthcare workers deserve credit and gratitude, but so do the citizens of the county.
Smith said at the county’s peak there were about 730 active cases of COVID. Right now, there are three and that is definitely a step in the right direction. However, the variants could impact the area again in the future.
The goal for all and the hope for CCPH and St. Anthony is to be able to get back to normal in both our work and personal lives.
