COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Angry parents blasted Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency Health Officer Rebecca Burns during Thursday’s Board of Health meeting over her quarantine orders of school children in the three counties the agency serves.
While her September 3 quarantine order for close contacts has been updated to align the Health Agency with new K-12 quarantine guidance from the state, parents were upset that otherwise healthy children have been forced to stay home from school.
Derek Shaw, who has children in the Bronson Community School district, said Burns was deceptive in dealing with school officials and called her policy a failure that should be rescinded.
He went on to say the policy is destroying public trust in the health department.
Coldwater High School Volleyball Coach Kelsey Closson said it has been tough on her team and her family.
Doctor Loren Vogel, who is retiring as the agency’s Medical Director next week, said in response that they are trying to keep the virus from spreading.
The entire State of Michigan is at a high risk level for the spread of the virus. The numbers have been fueled over the last couple of months by the Delta variant.
For the week of September 14 through 21, Branch County had a test positivity rate of 14-point-2 percent which is above the ten percent threshold as established by health authorities.
Weekly cases per 100,000 have dropped in Branch County from 404 on September 13 to 255 on Tuesday.
Comments