First Lincoln County COVID-19 case confirmed in Tyler

Lincoln and Lyon counties have each been notified of first confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past week.

By Mark Wilmes
tributeeditor@gmail.com

 
Tyler Police Chief John Spindler released information on Monday that has identified Tyler as the location of the first confirmed COVID-19 patient in Lincoln County.
“On Friday, March 27, 2020, the City of Tyler received confirmation of a positive COVID-19 case in Lincoln County. Furthermore, the City also acknowledges that this case is a Tyler resident,” the statement said. “City officials have spoken with the family and are confident that this individual is following the proper precautions set forth by their doctor. The city was authorized by the family to provide this release in hopes to educate the general public of this virus and to remind everyone to follow guidelines that were given to the residents of the State of Minnesota by Governor Tim Walz. With the current Shelter-at-Home order in place, the City of Tyler understands that residents need essential items and also need to get of the house from time to time. With that in mind, we remind everyone to continue to maintain social distancing throughout this process. Together we can make a difference and continue to provide a safe community for everyone.”

For the full story, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

From a distance — learning shifts to homes

RTR Superintendent David Marlette spoke with the Tribute by video chat from his home on Friday.

Beginning on Monday of this week, distance learning has commenced for Russell-Tyler-Ruthton students and all across the state, and will continue to at least until Monday, May 4. RTR Superintendent Marlette spoke with the Tribute on Friday by video chat from his home.
“I’ve sent out a letter to all the parents outlining everything the governor has laid out about schools,” Marlette revealed. “We’re serving and delivering food to our students and we’re providing daycare to our essential workers and to our staff. With our staff working mostly from home, going forward it will be mostly for essential workers’ children.”
Marlette said staff workers will be manning the daycare centers.

For the full story, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

Avera accepting homemade cloth face masks from volunteers

By Mark Wilmes
tributeeditor@gmail.com

The Avera Faith and Community Engage program (F.A.C.E) is seeking volunteers across the region to help craft cloth face masks for use in hospitals and clinics. Guidelines, instructions, materials and patterns are included at AveraBalance.org, in an online story, “How Can I Help Sew Masks for Health Care Workers?”
Avera officials say that creating cloth masks for patients and employees now can help assist in the further conservation of personal protective equipment during this time. These homemade masks will help extend what is available to providers, nurses and others.

For the full story, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

Virtual Visits and Other Changes in Clinic Care During COVID-19 Outbreak

Avera is temporarily changing its clinic practic­es in order to protect pa­tients and employees, and conserve resources during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Patients may have more appointments scheduled as virtual visits instead of in-person visits, unless the need is urgent or emergent. Virtual visits are face-to-face visits via smartphone, tablet or computer. If any medications are needed, these can be prescribed via the virtual visit. Out­reach visits may be done via virtual visits as well. As Avera increases its capac­ity for virtual visits, more and more providers across the Avera system will be providing them.

For the full story, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

Let’s go on a bear hunt in Tyler

Are those bears peeking out of the window? Go on a bear hunt of your own and find out.

By Shelly Finzen
lbvjeditor@gmail.com

 
In Governor Walz’s Stay At Home order, he explicitly encouraged Minnesotans to enjoy outdoor activities: “Individuals may engage in outdoor activities (e.g., walking, hiking, running, biking, driving for pleasure, hunting, or fishing), and may go to available public parks and other public recreation lands, consistent with remaining at least six feet apart from individuals from other households.” In an effort to encourage Tyler residents to get outside to enjoy the spring weather, why not join in a community bear hunt?
In the spirit of “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen, communities across the nation are creating their own localized bear hunts…

For the full story, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

SIGNS

There are plenty of signs around Tyler these days. Signs of hope, signs of business closure, signs of spring, signs of Easter, signs of love, signs of baseball allegiance and even signs that people are sharing bears and caterpillars and hearts to their friends and neighbors as they drive by.

For more photos, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

Red Cross faces severe blood shortage due to virus

 Avera Tyler to host blood drive Thursday

The American Red Cross now faces a severe blood shortage due to an un­precedented number of blood drive cancellations in response to the COVID- 19 outbreak. Healthy in­dividuals are needed now to donate to help patients counting on lifesaving blood.
Individuals can sched­ule an appointment to give blood with the Red Cross by visiting RedCrossBlood.org, using the Red Cross Blood Donor App, calling 1-800-RED-CROSS or enabling the Blood Donor Skill on any Alexa Echo device.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has grown here in the U.S., blood drive cancel­lations have grown at an alarming rate. To date, nearly 2,700 Red Cross blood drives have been canceled across the country due to con­cerns about congre­gating at workplac­es, college campuses and schools amidst the coronavirus out­break. These cancel­lations have resulted in some 86,000 few­er blood donations. More than 80% of the blood the Red Cross collects comes from drives held at locations of this type.

For the full story, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

Site workers still on the job

By Mark Wilmes
tributeeditor@gmail.com

 
Among the employees considered essential by the State of Minnesota are construction workers. R.A. Morton Site Manager Michael Beach said he has been in touch with all the contractors working on the new RTR pre-K-12 building.
“With the COVID-19 is¬sue in front of us, we’ve reached out to each con¬tractor and shared with them the executive order from Governor Walz,” Beach said on Friday. “It specifically identifies our assigned workers as critical workers, so we are planning to work. I’ve reached out to all of the contractors and I’ve shared that with them and got their commitments to be on site.”
Beach said that workers would follow the usual protocol on site.

For the full story, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

Workers inside the new school building on Monday.

Avera hospice benefit postponed

The 2019 Hospice Benefit was enjoyed by many.

By Mark Wilmes
tributeeditor@gmail.com

Avera Tyler announced last week that the Tyler Hospice Benefit and Auc­tion has been postponed.
Abby Ahmann, executive director of the Avera Tyler Foundation, said the event will be tentatively resched­uled for the fall.
“While plans were un­derway for the 25th an­nual event to be held on April 17, 2020, recent events have led us to post­pone,” Ahmann said. “Due to COVID-19, we feel that it is best to reschedule this event to happen later this year. We anticipate choosing a date in the fall of 2020, being mindful of harvest time, and will let you know as soon as we confirm the new date.”

For the full story, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

What crisis?

This tabby seemed fairly unconcerned about any talk of COVID-19 as it enjoyed a sunny spot along County Highway 8 in Tyler on Monday.