Winona leaders share with Sen. Amy Klobuchar harsh COVID-19 impacts seen in the local community
Klobuchar has seen the harmfulness of COVID-19 in her personal life, as her husband just recently recovered from the disease.
She shared that her husband dealt with a serious case of the illness. He suffered complications such as low oxygen, coughing up blood and pneumonia.
She said that one of the worst parts of such a traumatic situation is "that feeling that you can't visit someone when they're so sick, which is happening to every family in
"And then, of course, there's so many worse cases of people dying alone and how hard that is on them, of course, their families, and then, of course, the health care workers who are trying to hold up the phones, just for them, to hear from someone," she said.
Many topics were discussed during the conference call, which revealed exactly what is concerning the leaders of the
During the call,
One of these worries is related to the census, because during previous decades college students would be counted toward the city's population and other data.
Now that students have moved out of the community because classes have switched to alternative formats on all three higher education campuses, Peterson expressed his concern about this affecting the census data.
Klobuchar, along with her staff, said the students should fill out the census as if they were living where they normally do during college in
Peterson also expressed concerns about the community's homeless and how this section of the population might increase because of people losing their jobs. He hopes that the government will work to support those in need of housing, which Klobuchar confirmed is a focus of hers.
Peterson hopes that the government can additionally help finance community entities such as the city's Friendship Center, which canceled all of its programs and other opportunities to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Nonprofits in the community are a focus of Peterson's also, especially as the organizations might not be receiving as many donations as they normally do.
"I think there's a lot of nonprofits out there that are really going to be hurting (if they rely) on certain kinds of once-a-year fundraisers that have had to be canceled and can't be rescheduled," Peterson said.
He thinks that some of these organizations might not be able to survive this lack of funding because of the pandemic.
"I think any incentives out there, any kinds of efforts to help those nonprofits is going to be really important," Peterson said.
Klobuchar said that small cities and counties are a focus for her and her staff, along with other senators, who are working to help create a bill that will support these communities.
Health
"If we just looked at our community, we're starting to approach being a hotspot," said
The organization is working to overcome COVID-19 testing difficulties, along with making decisions on how to make sure the staff and patients are safe while still being treated as much as possible. These changes include using more telehealth options.
Local businesses and individuals are donating supplies to the organization, Schultz said.
"This is where you see community at its finest," she said.
Even with the community willing to help the health organization, the financial difficulties caused by the pandemic are undeniable.
With elective surgeries and many services no longer available until further notice,
The organization's strong history doesn't seem to be able to protect it from these hardships.
"We've worked really hard to be a strong community health care system, to be here for the long haul," Schultz said.
But she also added that these resources and strengths that have been built up are quickly being burned through during this hard situation.
She said that, with the expected peak of the pandemic continuing to be pushed back later into the year, she's not sure some hospitals will be able to survive because financial losses cannot simply be replaced with cost reductions.
"These are the kinds of things that can really destabilize the entire rural infrastructure, and the long-term implications for this are pretty massive," Schultz said.
She said that everyone in the organization is facing pay cuts so that they can help support
Schultz warned, though, that this type of change can't last very long.
She said that the hospital has received some support from the government, recently receiving
While she expressed gratitude for these funds, she said the money does not come close to what
Additionally, some funding is coming as loans that
Schultz does not expect this to be possible, because if future revenue has to go toward paying off loans, the hospital won't be able to make any more revenue beyond that.
She said she hopes rural hospitals will receive grants in the future to help them survive the pandemic, so there will be fewer worries about paying back the funds.
Schultz hopes that the government, in the future, will allow for all rural hospitals to be automatically qualified for the 340B Program, for which
The
With unemployment rising, Schultz also worries about people losing access to employer-offered health insurance.
Klobuchar said a lot of money is already going toward the hospitals through COVID-19 bills.
She said, though, "I believe we're going to have to do more as we get through this."
Klobuchar hopes to also help those in assisted living be able to be supported and have safe access to the services they need.
She hopes that testing will soon be more accessible. She said it was originally limited by a government decision to only focus on testing through the
Businesses
She said that some businesses in the community are not receiving as much as they likely qualify for in Economic Injury Disaster Loans from the government.
Some of these businesses have received less than
Ransom will be connecting with Klobuchar's staff to help deal with this problem.
Additionally, some laid-off employees in the community are considering not rejoining the workforce at this time because they are making more money through unemployment than they did when they were hired, Ransom said.
She also shared that people are limited with their ability to use banking services, because banks are seeing extreme increases of businesses and are limiting who they will work with, such as only working with those who already have accounts with them.
Manufacturers are being affected, and some are determined to be nonessential.
Ransom said that a
Other
Ransom said one business that could be hit hard if the pandemic continues is Miller Ingenuity because railroads might be used much less.
Some businesses, though, are not seeing as much impact directly, Ransom said.
"But their concern is what (the pandemic) does to our community from a downtown standpoint for our small businesses, because that's what attracts people to
The
She said that because slaughterhouses are closing, farmers cannot sell their animals to meet demands in the markets.
Co-ops are also not buying as much milk, which is forcing area farmers to dump milk.
Because of low gas prices, corn sales are affected because the decreased need for ethanol.
Ransom said farmers are struggling to get assistance also as businesses, because some might not have other employees to pay.
She said nonprofits in the community are suffering, including the
Because of the events it had to cancel in June, the chamber likely lost up to
The chamber is also allowing for grace periods for some businesses that can no longer afford the membership fees.
"We don't want them to lose the support that we're giving them," Ransom said. "And we're giving businesses support that have never invested or partnered with us because one less business here is a hole in the most special and unique community that I've ever lived in."
She hopes that chambers of commerce will not be forgotten in future bill packages during this pandemic, because she said many of these organizations are worried about their futures.
While
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