{"id":1032,"date":"2020-12-13T21:58:12","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T02:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/gdjfall20\/?p=1032"},"modified":"2020-12-13T22:01:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T03:01:00","slug":"lincoln-county-nevada-is-an-example-of-how-second-wave-hits-rural-counties-across-america-straining-local-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/gdjfall20\/index.php\/2020\/12\/13\/lincoln-county-nevada-is-an-example-of-how-second-wave-hits-rural-counties-across-america-straining-local-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"Lincoln County, Nevada – An Example of How the Second Wave Hits Rural Counties Across America, Straining Local Resources"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Maureen Mullarkey
\nWord Count: 1665<\/em><\/p>\n


\nLincoln County, Nevada – An Example of How the Second Wave Hits Rural Counties Across America, Straining Local Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lincoln County, Nevada had only five cases of COVID-19 throughout the first seven months of the coronavirus pandemic. Zero deaths. With a population of 5,200 barely anyone in the county expected covid rates to soar beyond double digits. Then November arrived and Lincoln County held a testing positivity rate of 18.6%. Cases have since been skyrocketing, now totaling at 248.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo months ago it basically exploded,\u201d said Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee, 57. \u201cIt rapidly accelerated in the amount of cases.<\/p>\n

Lincoln County, one of Nevada\u2019s most sparse and rural counties per square mile, now leads the state\u2019s percentage of positive coronavirus cases, with a percentage of 62.7 percent <\/a>at the beginning of this week. The county, which has a total population of 5,200, is just one of the many rural areas nationwide which are experiencing a surge of positive COVID-19 cases, in the second wave of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Shana Marie Loveday, a resident of the town of Alamo, has been a resident of Lincoln County since 1992.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think people took it very seriously in the beginning,\u201d said Loveday. \u201c You had to have your mask at the store, but you could shop without one until you got to the register. Some people didn’t even care if you had a mask. She said she herself didn\u2019t worry too much, even when a healthcare provider she knew contracted the virus in the Spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like, okay, that makes sense,\u201d said Loveday, who works at a youth correctional facility. \u201cYou know, it was in a high risk field.<\/p>\n

But come October, the county experienced its first COVID-19 related death, when an elderly woman in a nursing home contracted the virus. Then in late November, Lau Fiatoa, a healthy man in his 40\u2019s, contracted the virus and died <\/a>a few days later.<\/p>\n

Loveday said Fiatoa\u2019s wife was a former student of her husband, who teaches high school, and this affected the tight-knit community deeply.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it was a big wake up call for a lot of people in the town,\u201d said Loveday. \u201c It’s like, oh, so it took somebody dying, that’s kind of sad. You know, this poor man, he\u2019s got four young boys at home. It just breaks my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee, who has been on the force for 32 years and sheriff for 16, said that this surge has not just affected the county\u2019s residents but their resources as well. At the beginning of the pandemic in March, Lee says he tried to limit his officer\u2019s interaction with residents to prevent exposure from COVID-19. But since most of his officers are also coroners for the county, and also serve as guards for the local prison in the town of Pinoche, limited exposure seemed almost impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw an increase in coroner cases not due to COVID, but an increase of fatal accidents. The traffic on our highways increased. Calls to service, [such as] domestics, calls contemplating suicide increase, everything that we do increased,\u201d said Lee. \u201cSo we really had no choice but to go back. We couldn’t continue doing our job effectively with the precautions that we were taking. \u201c<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s department is made up of 16 officers, but as of now, four are in quarantine after exposure to COVID-19. Even though he felt his officers were given enough PPE this March, the lack of people power stretches his officers thin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree or four doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you have a very small department, that’s big,\u201d said Lee. \u201cWe\u2019re requesting officers to work overtime. We shortened our shifts. We just basically did everything we could, and it’s still continuing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee says that even though his officers sometimes receive backup from other departments like Highway Patrol, there is no quick fix to replace a fully trained police officer. He says it takes almost a year for an officer to be trained and hired, especially in Lincoln County, where police wear multiple hats.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn law enforcement, you just don’t hire somebody tomorrow and put them to work the next day,\u201d said Lee. \u201c So hiring isn’t even an option for us as far as getting somebody to help fill the gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lincoln County county, which is a total of 10,633.4 square miles, is mainly ranching county. North of Las Vegas, it only contains one hospital, Grover C. Dils Medical Center, which also is a nursing home.<\/p>\n

Loveday says that while she feels this hospital is good for emergencies and has been transparent with the county about COVID-19 cases, residents often end up going to metropolitan areas for major health issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an appendicitis years ago,\u201d she said about one experience at Grover C. Dils. \u201cAnd it was like, yep, \u2018I think that’s what’s going on, get in, get over to Cedar City and get it taken care of there’.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Bryce Putnam, the Health Officer for Elko County in the northeast of Nevada, says that one main issue rural counties face compared to metropolitan areas is a lack of infrastructure within its health care system. In Nevada, for example, its rural counties, or \u2018frontier counties\u201d are serviced by Carson City.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo just in perspective, it’s 320 miles from Elko to Carson City,\u201d said Putnam. \u201cWe kind of had to work in conjunction with the state to use the existing resources that we had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putnam says that in Elko county, in order to reach its almost 48,000 residents over 17,200 square miles, a COVID-19 Hotline was created in the first wave, where medical students from the University of Nevada answer caller\u2019s questions about COVID-19. The medical students would be able to not only check someone’s symptoms over the phone, but create in-person appointments for them, if needed. The hotline encompassed six counties: Pershing; Humbodlt; Lander; Eureka; Elko; and White Pine.<\/p>\n

Putnam says this hotline also relieved added stress from local sheriff\u2019s offices and hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were able to stay home, not go into the doctor’s office, and, possibly propagate the disease, which is what we were trying to prevent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Across the country, most non-metropolitan counties have now recorded at least 100 cases or more per 10,000 people since the pandemic began, more than double than in early September. Nevada as a whole has also seen an increase in almost every country, with an average of 2,429 cases per day<\/a>. Elko County currently has 3373 total confirmed cases, and has experienced 28 COVID-19 related deaths <\/a><\/p>\n