Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
31 Cases In The County
Rising COVID-19 cases in the area have Kimball Health Services introducing a set of new guidelines. The clinic requests that if you have been exposed to COVID-19 or have symptoms, call and receive instructions and an appointment before coming to the clinic, so no walk-in COVID-19 patients are being accepted.
In addition, the Kimball hospital allows one visitor per patient per stay while visitors to the clinic and outpatient are limited to only those accompanying a minor patient.
As of Tuesday, Kimball County had 31 active recorded cases of COVID-19.
The most recent 14-day total for Kimball County reached 43. According to the PPHD website, the ICU availability in this area is 21%, and the hospital bed availability is 38%
A press release from Regional West Medical Center said no visitors will be allowed into Regional West Medical Center without prior approval. Exceptions of one visitor are allowed for pediatric, labor, vulnerable adult patients, trauma and end-of-life patients.
The Panhandle Public Health COVID-19 risk spread dial jumped into the red or severe category for Kimball County and a number of other counties in the Panhandle.
PPHD released some sobering statistics for the Panhandle dated Nov. 9. The current number of patients in the hospital diagnosed with COVID-19 is 78, while seven COVID-19 individuals are currently on ventilators and there are a total of 45 ventilators available in the region.
The Kimball Veterans Day program scheduled for Nov. 11 has been postponed to Friday, Dec. 11, at 10 a.m. due to students being quarantined. The program is a project of the high school civics class.