Lori Walsh: As of yesterday's official state count, Beadle County has had 21 total confirmed cases of COVID-19, 18 of those people have since recovered. Keep in mind the definition of recovered, according to the South Dakota Department of Health, is that that person is free from fever for three days. Their symptoms have resolved and they have been isolated for an appropriate period of time, usually that's around seven days.
Now in a recent press conference, Governor Noem praised the city of Huron for their efforts in dealing with the outbreak. The challenge in South Dakota is far from over, but we welcome Huron Mayor Paul Aylward and Huron Public Information Officer Mark Johnson back to the program today for an update. Mayor Aylward, thanks for being here, appreciate time.
Paul Aylward: You're welcome. Glad to be here, too.
Lori Walsh: Mark Johnson, thanks for being here, too.
Mark Johnson: No problem. Thanks for having us back.
Lori Walsh: Let's start with you, Mayor, and tell us a little bit about how things have unfolded from an ordinance standpoint and some of the actions that you had taken early on and how they stand today. Just give us the general update from here on, please.
Paul Aylward: Sure, I'll be glad to. On the 22nd of March, we held a special meeting of the Huron City Commission in joint with the Beadle County Commission. After much discussion that day and tossing around different options, we decided to pass an ordinance and a resolution that basically was a shutdown of our city and our county. The county commission also passed the same resolution and ordinance as we did. That went into effect at midnight March 23rd and since then, as you know, we have done pretty well on our containing the virus and maybe at least flattening out the curve of where we're at.
For, I believe, a week or so now, we've had no new positive cases and so that is good. We think that the efforts that we took on the 23rd, 22nd meeting went into effect that night at midnight on the 23rd, have worked. We hope that that is the case and that we stay on that path with no more new positive cases of the coronavirus.
Lori Walsh: Mayor, the last time we talked, we also talked about contact tracing, because there were rumors across the state about who these cases were impacting and you cleared those up last time. But I want to get to this idea of what did you know ... I'm not asking for privacy information to be released, but did you have enough information to find out where those cases were concentrated, if they were concentrated together, in a way to contact everybody who might have been exposed and have them self-isolate? What was that process like for you?
For mayors who haven't had this come to their town yet or to their county, what is that communication like between the Department of Health and the people are sick, so you can get the information out that keeps other people safe?
Paul Aylward: Well, the Department of Health gives us limited information. They would only tell us that the cases were from Beadle County. They did the tracking themselves and they do not divulge that information. We did have some rumors that it was being carried by our immigrant population. They did tell us that all of the positive cases in Beadle County were from Caucasian. That was the basic information that we got and that's what we released to the public.
Lori Walsh: Would you have wanted to know more? Did you feel like that was enough?
Paul Aylward: Well, I think that was basically enough. We really do respect people's privacy in this. We have had, as it's probably been reported, one of our local legislators, Representative Bob Glanzer was infected, a positive, and has since passed away. His family released that information. So that, I think, answered a lot of questions for a lot of people. A lot of people knew Bob Glanzer and that was the only information that we knew, which was released by his family.
Lori Walsh: Talk for a minute about Bob and just the loss that is for people who are facing this illness. It's very personal and we're sorry to hear of the loss. I didn't know him personally, but how does it affect a community like Huron to know someone who was prominent in the community and represented Beadle County or represented that district, I should say, in peer. How are people taking that loss and grieving? Meanwhile, all these other things are going on.
Paul Aylward: Well, there's been a big outpouring for his family. He was very prominent in his church and was well-known throughout the community, having served in different jobs here in Huron. He was the manager of the state fair for a number of years. He also was a banker here in town and he was very well-known throughout Beadle County, but in Huron, I believe almost everyone knew Bob Glanzer.
Lori Walsh: Mark, I want to talk with you a little bit and tell me about how people are responding to the restrictions to isolation, to the economic impact and the closure of businesses. What are you hearing about the early success of the actions that were taken, but then also, are you noticing restlessness to say, what does normal look like in the coming days?
Mark Johnson: Currently, I think our citizens and residents are doing a really good job of still supporting our local businesses, whether it be through take-out programs or pickup at the door. They're still able to get their services. They're helping each other out. They're coming together to make sure they are still supporting their businesses. It's a culture shock for everybody and a lot of us had to adapt to it and for the most part, everybody is working together and taking the recommendations and following the ordinances and resolutions that our elected officials passed back on March 22nd.
Lori Walsh: Are people concerned about how long they might go on or is the community of Huron sort of just, we're all in this together. What's the overall ... It's not monolithic, of course, and everybody has their own thoughts. But are you getting a sense of how people are mentally approaching this challenge?
Mark Johnson: It's a combination of both what you said earlier there where people are like, they're seeing the numbers coming from the Department of Health we've been maintaining. But at the same time, we can't let our guard down and they're coming up with their actions plans to sustain what they may have to do for however long this takes. As the Governor's made mention that this is a marathon, this isn't a sprint. So I think, for the most part, everybody is doing their due diligence. They're working through the new way of doing things for the time being until our elected leaders decide to lift their restrictions that they've put in place.
But for the time being, everybody's doing pretty much what they should be doing and following the guidance that's been enacted and following what our federal leaders have even put out there.
Lori Walsh: Mayor, this is a city as Governor Noem pointed out, that had an early situation, responded strongly, saw immediate results from those responses and is now, I like what Mark said there, developing an action plan for sustaining these actions. Anything else you would like to add, Mayor, before we let you go back to your busy schedules?
Paul Aylward: Well, I would just like to add that the public information that I'm getting, the people that have called me, who have text me, who have written letters to the editor, almost all them have been positive. And people do believe that we are on the right path and I think Huron is pretty strong community and when they decide to do something, they stick with it. So I'm really proud of the way the people of Huron have responded. We are all in this together and I think that's the attitude that's been shown here.
Lori Walsh: Huron Mayor Paul Aylward, sorry Paul, and Huron Public Information Officer, Mark Johnson, thank you so much for being here with us. We appreciate both of your time.
Paul Aylward: You're welcome.
Mark Johnson: Thank you.