TOEM: COVID-19 cases rising on Fort Hall Reservation
By RANDY’L TETON
Tribal EOC PIO
FORT HALL — COVID-19 cases are on the rise again on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation.
Since last week, we have seen the positive cases double. Fort Hall still has a face mask mandate in place and encourage membership to continue to wear your facemask off reservation when shopping and/or dining.
Fort Hall Numbers for this week according to data reported as of March 30 at 4 p.m.: Total cases to date: 897; total active cases: 17; total currently hospitalized: 0; total recovered to date: 862; total deceased to date: 18; total vaccines given to date: 4,412.
MASS SCREENING DATA FOR EACH TESTING LOCATION
Since December of 2020, the Tribes has offered weekly COVID-19 screenings at participating district centers and the Shoshone-Bannock Chiefs Event Center. As of this week, the $20 incentive cards are depleted and no longer available at the weekly screenings. Weekly screenings will still be available until further notice. Here are the results from this week’s screenings:
Monday, March 29 - Eagle Lodge provided 103 tests with 3 positives.
On average we are seeing 2 positive cases per day in Fort Hall. These weekly screenings help determine and track data to help us decrease the spread of COVID-19 and we encourage the community to please continue attending the screenings. The screenings are free and open to other Native American Tribes that reside or work on the Fort Hall Reservation or non-Natives that reside or work in Fort Hall.
VACCINE UPDATE
To date the Tribes have given a total of 4,412 vaccines to the Fort Hall community. With the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine, there has been a total of 204 given to-date. We are seeing an average of 20 people being vaccinated per day in Fort Hall (this number changes weekly based upon the number of vaccines given). On Tuesday, Fort Hall I.H.S hosted a vaccination event offering both the Moderna and J&J vaccine. At the time of this release, we do not have the data from this event to provide. Overall, Fort Hall is above the curve in providing vaccines to the community in comparison to the region, state and national.
According to the Southeastern Idaho Public Health (SIPH), they recently announced the presence of the United Kingdom (UK) Coronavirus variant in our health district. We encourage our community if you have not got vaccinated to please protect yourself from the virus and variants entering into our area. Please continue to wear your face mask, wash your hands and be cautious of travel out of state.
Appointments for vaccines can be made by calling the I.H.S at 208-238-5427 or Tribal Health at 208-238-5435 for patients who have an established IHS chart. If you live on the reservation or are a household member of an enrolled Tribal member please call 208-478-3987 for information about receiving vaccinations from the Shoshone-Bannock Community Health Center. If you need a ride to either clinic, please call the Fort Hall Transit Service at 208-478-4069.
The Tribes will not host a Facebook LIVE this week and will be post on the Tribes Facebook page on the next scheduled event.
To keep updated on COVID19 resources, check out the Tribes COVID19 website for ongoing updates including the COVID data dashboard, face mask mandate, Tribal PSA's, Facebook live recordings, etc. http://sbtribes.com/covid-19/
