Park County health board hears hours of public comment on isolation plan, votes to retain 2014 policy

The Park County Board of Health heard more than two dozen public comments and extended discussion on its proposed isolation and quarantine policies and related plans, then voted to keep the county’s 2014 isolation and quarantine plan in effect.

The board’s interim health officer, Laurel Duznick, told the board the October 8 draft isolation plan presented at a previous meeting “was tabled until further information was available,” and that staff had since located a 2019 nonpharmaceutical-intervention (NPI) standard operating procedure submitted to the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS). Duznick said the 2019 NPI document “complies with the Montana Code and DPHHS standards” and that the October 8 draft was therefore “no longer relevant.”

The meeting’s nut graf: public commenters — including local health-care workers, parents, and civic activists — used the board’s public-comment period to press for clarity, transparency and limits on local quarantine authority; many asked that the board adopt only the state’s approach or that it hold a public workshop before changing local policy. Several speakers said the October 8 draft was too broad and risked involuntary detention or treatment,…