Valley City  (CSi)  Valley City  (CSi)  The City of Valley City  hosted a COVID-19 Response Briefing on June 17, 2020, at 5:30-pm. at City Hall.

The briefing was closed the public to honor social distancing.

The meeting aired live with replays on CSi TV 68.   To view the briefing online, view it here at CSiNewsNOW.com

Each organization provided updates and information pertaining to recent developments in the COVID-19 community response.

City-County Health District Administrator, Theresa Will,  confirmed that as of Wednesday there are two additional positive cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Barnes County. The individuals are a male in his 30’s and a female in her 70’s. Their cases and sources of exposure remain under investigation by the North Dakota Department of Health. These newly confirmed cases bring the county total to 11, with three considered active.  She added that over 1400 COVID-19 test have been performed so far.

She added that a local mass testing event will occur, likely in early July with announcement to be made. She pointed out that 80-percent of COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic.

Letter are being sent to parent of students regarding childhood immunizations.  Those include parents of students that have finished sixth and 10th grades, and to parent of students entering seventh and 10th grades.  Parents of younger children should also keep up to date with their needed immunization, and make appointments for them.

Theresa Will spoke on behalf of M.D. and Health Officer for City-County Health District James Buhr, who is on a mission to Africa regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

A portion of Dr. Buhr’s statement including that “ We will not get by with lax observation of the rules this Fall when we have hundreds of people moving here from places all over the country, almost all of which have higher COVID prevalence than Barnes County.

This means masking indoors, even when you are 6 feet from the nearest person.

It means carrying hand sanitizer in your pocket and using it when you touch something and washing your hands for 20 seconds whenever possible and when you get home.

It means staying home if you feel ill. It means keeping track of all your contacts in case you or they become positive.”

Valley City,  City Administrator for Valley City, Gwen Crawford introduced herself, and encourage calls to her with questions or concerns.

Valley City Mayor, Dave Carlsrud said, this meeting is the last planned meeting to be held on Wednesday evenings.

He urges residents to continue to “do the right thing,” in observing social distancing, frequent hand washing wearing masks, and other safe measures to control the spread o COVID-19.

He said those isolated, vulnerable individuals are sometimes in need of behavioral health counseling, having been away from family and friends, for many weeks.

In other business, he said there has been unauthorized use of commercial dumpsters, an offenses that can be fined.

He said recycling in Valley City is picking up, and recycling save residents money, with less material being hauled to landfill, which city city is charged for.

He pointed out recycling drop off locations, which have cameras recording those stopping there to make sure no garbage is placed in the recycling containers.