County Designated Red For COVID
December 30, 2020 at 4:24 p.m.
By Amanda Bridgman-
Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer, Kosciusko County Health Officer Dr. William Remington, Bowen Center CEO Kurt Carlson and County Commissioner Cary Groninger held a press conference Wednesday morning to announce the red designation.
“We were just barely under being labeled red, and they (the State Department of Health) reconfigured their calculation and, as anticipated, numerous counties across the state this week, today, turned red because of the positivity rate and Kosciusko County is one of those,” Remington said. “Our case load remains high in this region ... we are not seeing an explosion of cases ... but we’re seeing lots of cases, lots of generic community transmission, friends and family gatherings, we’re seeing more deaths.”
Remington said the county’s red designation is based on the number of cases per 100,000 and the positivity rate.
New restrictions come now. “It limits gathering sizes to 25 people,” Remington said. “There are a few things that are clamped down a little bit more. Sports venues and attendance is really limited. There’s no demand to cancel all sports events with this red designation and ... congregations – churches, synagogues and such – are held exempt in the state of Indiana from these restrictions.”
Remington asked the community to wear a mask with the “protect your neighbor” mindset, and to rethink holiday plans for the New Year if not cancel them completely.
“I continue to lose patients in their 60s to COVID. ... We just lost a gentleman last week, he had some underlying health conditions but he would have survived and lived longer, but COVID took his life,” Remington said. “It’s a real thing. These numbers still reflect a real issue of significance in the community, so people, please be vigilant.”
Remington said the newest calculation that pushed Kosciusko into the red zone is not because the county has seen “cases blow up in the last week,” it’s just that the county was right under the threshold of being red for several weeks “and all it took was our positivity rate to jump up a couple points with the recalculation to put is in red.”
One of the restrictions listed in the red zone executive order states that pre-K to 12 schools should consult with their local department of health when making decisions about in-person, hybrid and virtual learning options.
When asked about the schools’ reopening plans from Christmas break on Monday, Remington said, “It comes down to administrative muster and the ability to muster human resources as people are taken out by quarantine directives to keep the school open. It’s as much an administrative issue as it is a threat of contagion within the walls of the school. We will continue to take that approach as a health department. Warsaw and their administration has been very robust in their desire to keep the school open and put together layered strategies to try to accomplish that, and we have supported that type of strategy from the Kosciusko County Health Department, so we’ll have ongoing discussions I’m sure. I don’t see this as changing anything with how we approach the school.”
Other restrictions now in effect include: community recreational sports league and tournaments may continue but are limited to participants, support personnel and parents/guardians of their minor children; college and professional sports may continue with participants, support personnel and family members. A local health department may approve a plan for fan attendance of up to 25% capacity; businesses are open but must follow county metric requirements; and senior center activities are suspended.
For a complete detailed list of what the red designation restricts, visit www.in.gov.
The next local coronavirus press conference will be held virtually at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 6.
Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer, Kosciusko County Health Officer Dr. William Remington, Bowen Center CEO Kurt Carlson and County Commissioner Cary Groninger held a press conference Wednesday morning to announce the red designation.
“We were just barely under being labeled red, and they (the State Department of Health) reconfigured their calculation and, as anticipated, numerous counties across the state this week, today, turned red because of the positivity rate and Kosciusko County is one of those,” Remington said. “Our case load remains high in this region ... we are not seeing an explosion of cases ... but we’re seeing lots of cases, lots of generic community transmission, friends and family gatherings, we’re seeing more deaths.”
Remington said the county’s red designation is based on the number of cases per 100,000 and the positivity rate.
New restrictions come now. “It limits gathering sizes to 25 people,” Remington said. “There are a few things that are clamped down a little bit more. Sports venues and attendance is really limited. There’s no demand to cancel all sports events with this red designation and ... congregations – churches, synagogues and such – are held exempt in the state of Indiana from these restrictions.”
Remington asked the community to wear a mask with the “protect your neighbor” mindset, and to rethink holiday plans for the New Year if not cancel them completely.
“I continue to lose patients in their 60s to COVID. ... We just lost a gentleman last week, he had some underlying health conditions but he would have survived and lived longer, but COVID took his life,” Remington said. “It’s a real thing. These numbers still reflect a real issue of significance in the community, so people, please be vigilant.”
Remington said the newest calculation that pushed Kosciusko into the red zone is not because the county has seen “cases blow up in the last week,” it’s just that the county was right under the threshold of being red for several weeks “and all it took was our positivity rate to jump up a couple points with the recalculation to put is in red.”
One of the restrictions listed in the red zone executive order states that pre-K to 12 schools should consult with their local department of health when making decisions about in-person, hybrid and virtual learning options.
When asked about the schools’ reopening plans from Christmas break on Monday, Remington said, “It comes down to administrative muster and the ability to muster human resources as people are taken out by quarantine directives to keep the school open. It’s as much an administrative issue as it is a threat of contagion within the walls of the school. We will continue to take that approach as a health department. Warsaw and their administration has been very robust in their desire to keep the school open and put together layered strategies to try to accomplish that, and we have supported that type of strategy from the Kosciusko County Health Department, so we’ll have ongoing discussions I’m sure. I don’t see this as changing anything with how we approach the school.”
Other restrictions now in effect include: community recreational sports league and tournaments may continue but are limited to participants, support personnel and parents/guardians of their minor children; college and professional sports may continue with participants, support personnel and family members. A local health department may approve a plan for fan attendance of up to 25% capacity; businesses are open but must follow county metric requirements; and senior center activities are suspended.
For a complete detailed list of what the red designation restricts, visit www.in.gov.
The next local coronavirus press conference will be held virtually at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 6.
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