Rural Health Systems Challenged By COVID-19 Surge

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People line up to be tested for the coronavirus at a free testing site Wednesday, Nov. 18 in Seattle.

Elaine Thompson/AP

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Elaine Thompson/AP

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Ken Roberts (left), his stepsister, Debbie Roberts, and her husband, Steve Kinzie, at a Christmas gathering at North Valley Extended Care in Tonasket in 2018. Ken died of COVID-19 on Nov. 29 at age 66.

Courtesy of Debbie Roberts

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Courtesy of Debbie Roberts

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Grant county 0utbreak

A 300-person November wedding near Ritzville, Wash., in Adams County has been linked to an outbreak in a neighboring Grant County school and long-term care facilities. So far this year, at least 65 people in Grant County have died from COVID-19 — more than half have come in the past six weeks.

Theresa Adkinson is the Public Health Administrator for Grant County.

«I am done with COVID, I am burned out, Adkinson says. «My staff are exhausted.

There are so many sick that her office has largely stopped contact tracing in the community. Some schools and one county hospital are doing their own contact tracing and outreach to help.

Adkinson says it’s disheartening to put out press releases with brutal death counts, and then see lifelong friends posting about unmasked gatherings on Facebook.

«The vaccine is coming, Adkinson says. «We can see the finish line. But it’s a ways out there. And how sad is it the people we lose just before we get to the finish line?

Slow to vaccinate

Rhonda Piner leads nursing for North Valley Extended Care in Tonasket. She kept working from home even after she got the virus. But then, the day after Thanksgiving, her 25 years of nursing experience kicked in.

«And I knew that I could no longer take care of myself, and so I called 911, Piner says.

Piner was hospitalized for six days. She says the prospect of returning to her remaining residents at the care center is daunting.

«I don’t know all the names (of the dead), Piner says. «I started crying, I will tell you. I will be sad to know who didn’t make it and who did. So, yeah it’s gonna be tough when I go back, it really is.

It may be even tougher than she knows. Experts say without adequate ways of implementing super-cold storage that vaccines require, rural areas may wait longer to get the much-anticipated doses.