After a 30-minute discussion last Tuesday, the Sherburne County Board agreed to develop a statement recommending wearing masks in the Government Center.

The vote followed a discussion about COVID-19, the Omicron variant and the response by other entities, most notably CentraCare and Stearns County.           

At the previous county board meeting Jan. 4, the commissioners adopted an interim employee policy for wearing masks and testing. That decision was based on the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on Vaccination and Testing in the workplace, which became effective Nov. 5, 2021. The ETS required that certain employers adopt and enforce a vaccination policy in order to provide a safe and healthy workplace for all employees and to help minimize the transmission of COVID-19. The ETS also required that employers must determine the COVID-19 vaccination status of all employees no later than Jan. 10, 2022.

Last week, the Supreme Court blocked that ETS mandate by OSHA, so the county board Tuesday voted to rescind its temporary COVID-19 policy requiring masks and testing for unvaccinated employees.

But that was just one part of Tuesday’s discussion. Also on the agenda was a request  to approve and sign a Joint City/County Statement in response to the spread of the Omicron variant. The message was based on statistics provided by CentraCare regarding the spread of COVID-19. Those statistics included a three-day positivity rate of 49.7% as of Jan. 6 and growth of COVID-19 in the community since Dec. 20 at 250%. At St. Cloud Hospital, 25% of the hospital and 70% of ICU beds are filled with COVID-19 patients. It showed a graph indicating the predicted spike in cases over the next few weeks, and how wearing masks would lower that spike. It also stated that the Omicron variant is affecting young children more frequently than prior variants.

That letter was signed by the board chairs of Stearns and Benton County, and mayors of St. Cloud, Sartell, Waite Park and Sauk Rapids.

The message recommended wearing masks indoors, limiting interaction with others outside of the workplace or family, washing hands, staying home when sick, and getting vaccinated.

Members of the board were in favor of the statement’s concept. But Commissioner Tim Dolan felt the numbers didn’t exactly reflect the numbers in Sherburne County.

“I’m okay with asking everybody to be smart,” he said. “But the positivity rate was St. Cloud Hospital’s positivity rate, not our county’s. I don’t mind the sentiment, but I think we should strip out (the statistics) and put in our own.”

Administrator Bruce Messelt said with the board’s permission, he could include a generic positivity rate, take out the data and say the board supports the concept.

“I’d be more in favor of that,” said Dolan.

“I’m fine with that too, said Commissioner Raeanne Danielowski. “We’re not mandating anything. We’re just encouraging.”

“I’m very fine with putting our own data in it and I’m also saying I’m very fine with saying wear your mask indoors when you’re around others,” said Commissioner Lisa Fobbe.

She said the next two weeks are critical as Omicron is expected to peak in late January and early February. So getting the message out about wearing masks is vital.

“The mask encouragement is needed yesterday. I don’t think we can wait two weeks for a board meeting to decide this,” she said.

She said the board should consider a temporary mask consideration (two to six weeks) because of the impact the virus could have on the county’s operations.

“I know some of our departments are talking about going with skeleton crews. If our DMV Dept., for example, was to be wiped out, we’d be out and not be able to support the public for about 10 days,” she said.

Commissioner Felix Schmiesing said he was not in favor of any mask mandate. But he felt some masks could make a difference.

“We know the N95 mask is the one that protects you from others and others from you. But here we are in our second year and N95 masks are not readily available for everyone who wants one,” he said. “If the county was to do something, I would rather see us provide some N95 masks to people who want to wear them and not to mandate mask wearing to anyone.”

“I wouldn’t be in favor of mandating masks in the building right now. However, I definitely reserve to change that based on people’s behavior and where numbers continue to go,” said Commissioner Dolan. “Right now I just want to make sure that our employees and the general public understand all the information that is coming from us and coming from public health and is being shared by medical professionals.”

“I would be good with having signage and having N95 masks available for visitors when they come into the building, and our employees as well,” said Danielowski.

Board Chair Barbara Burandt said masks of any type would help with the public health emergency.

“I’m on another group called Towards Zero Deaths. That’s a highway safety issue. This is the same thing, it’s a public health safety issue,” she said. “We see Sherburne County having people becoming ill in numbers we haven’t seen before and we see deaths higher that they have been before. The one rapid change for us to make that can alter that is mask wearing. So I want us to really think about if for a period of time until the peak goes down that we would say everybody who comes here and works here  wears a mask of some sort.”

At the end of the discussion, Dolan said the masks CentraCare used in its study were KN95s, not N95s, which were less readily available.

The board did not propose or make a motion for a mask mandate. They instructed Messelt to work with the public health dept. to develop a statement for the public and employees about safety recommendations as outlined in the CentraCare message.

Messelt said he would also have signage for the doors of the Government Center and look into having a supply of masks, preferably KN95s, available to staff and the public.