City & County Making COVID-19 Testing Available To Residents As Cases Surge
June 3, 2020 at 5:47 p.m.
City & County Making COVID-19 Testing Available To Residents As Cases Surge
By David [email protected]
At the weekly press conference on the coronavirus at city hall, Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said, “We are announcing that COVID testing has begun this morning at 7 a.m. at three MedStat locations in the county for county residents. County residents will be asked to present an insurance card and pay for that, but if they have no insurance, the testing will be done at no charge.”
He said the testing is being supported by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief & Economic Security (CARES) Act allocations from both the city and county, which have a memorandum of understanding to provide funds for the testing. Warsaw is providing $100,000 of CARES Act funds, while the county is providing $200,000 of the funds.
“That allows us to support a maximum of just a little over 2,000 tests,” Thallemer said. “We feel this is important given the increase in numbers ... We identified a concern late last week. We moved rather quickly to get this done. We’re happy to partner with MedStat – their availability, their accessibility.”
Residents can either go online to register for the testing at medstatonline.com or call the office to schedule at the following locations during the hours listed:
• MedStat Warsaw, 1500 Provident Drive, Suite A, Warsaw, IN 46580.
Hours: Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Phone 574-372-7637, option 2.
• MedStat Syracuse, 107 W. Pickwick Drive, Suite A, Syracuse, IN 46567.
Hours: Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Phone 574-457-8682, option 2.
• MedStat Nappanee, 1001 N. Main St., Suite A, Nappanee, IN 46550.
Hours: Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Phone 574-773-2509, option 2.
Thallemer said, “Testing will be on-demand for those with symptoms, those who are at risk by age or other health conditions or those who feel they’ve been exposed.”
He said they had been in contact with the Indiana governor’s office and the Indiana State Department of Health in regard to Warsaw being an Optum (state-sponsored) test site. Those test sites are similar to what Kosciusko and Warsaw are doing now.
“But we told – I think because our numbers were low for so long – we were not designated as an Optum testing site. I did make the request that they keep an eye on our numbers. If we get to the point where we can benefit from that, they assured us that they could create a testing site here in our community,” Thallemer said. “In lieu of that, (County) Commissioner (Cary) Groninger and I had a long discussion and felt like doing something now rather than waiting for a state testing site was critical in trying to bat this down.”
Groninger said when they talked about this last week, “It became pretty apparent we’re starting to see those numbers rise and we definitely want to try to do something. And after talking with different individuals, we pretty much found out some of the roadblocks, some of the struggles they were having in getting some testing. We tried to listen to what they had to say and try to remove those barriers so those who really need to get access to these tests can get the access.”
Thallemer said this testing is a critical step in trying to combat the pandemic.
Kosciusko County Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington later said, “Kosciusko County definitely has a surge of COVID cases. It took us two months to go from our first case to our 100th case just about a week ago. We have additionally 70 cases today on top of that 100 cases last week. It’s really surging. This is in the context of significant presence of cases in an adjacent county, which is receiving some national recognition for that, an unfortunate highlight of that county.”
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Elkhart County surpassed the number in neighboring St. Joseph County over last weekend, according to The Elkhart Truth. As of Wednesday, the ISDH dashboard reported Elkhart County had 1,435 cases with 29 deaths, while St. Joseph had 1,320 cases with 35 deaths.
Remington said he thought Kosciusko’s outbreak is part of that.
“Clustered housing, probably some shared occupational exposures come to play,” he said. “Our goal is to mitigate the spread. We’re certainly not going to eradicate this virus. But if we can slow it down, not swamp our local hospitals and emergency rooms, that’s our goal. And focused testing can help us get there. I’m all for this rather quickly assembled and innovative approach to creating a lower-barrier access to testing for this social set, geographic set within our county.”
He gave kudos to his communicable disease staff and epidemiologist for “seeing this. This didn’t just land in our laps. They had to really parse the data to see this. And I’m so proud of them for seeing it and helping us take a targeted approach this surge of cases.”
He said the population sector that they were referencing Wednesday morning was still just half of the new cases.
“This is part of a regional experience that has not gone away just yet,” Remington said.
At the state and national levels, Remington said those metrics continue to improve. The state’s “epi-curve” is “flattening out a little bit” while the national curve is showing improvement apart from some geographical hotspots across the country.
“So, yes, we are experiencing a surge, but in the context of the USA experience, it seems to be improving. Perhaps our surge will phase out a little quicker, we hope. But I am anticipating this will be a multi-week surge. That’s typically how these play out,” Remington said.
He said no one can perfectly predict what the surge will look like or what its legs will be like, but, “I ask that we continue as a population to be invested in things that flatten that curve, that helps us in spreading it out. It may drag it out a little longer, that’s for sure. That may be why we’re seeing this now. It could be that our late-coming surge is because we’ve been so invested in social distancing, in handwashing and masking and staying home for the last six or eight weeks. But we just don’t perfectly know why surge is coming now.”
While everyone is tired of the interventions, Remington asked people to continue to stay the course.
“The reopening plan from the state governor’s office is still appropriate. Our aggregate numbers per population remain low in our county so far, compared to neighboring counties and compared to state and national data. This county, per population, still has a low rate of COVID-19,” Remington said. “We still need to keep our heads on. ... I just need everybody’s ongoing efforts to be mindful of this pathogen, which is respectable.”
While most people will do well with an infection, he said it’s very clear two-three months into this pandemic that there are certain “quite vulnerable” subgroups, with the elderly in particular. “If nothing else, wear that mask to protect someone that you may not even know who is in proximity to you,” Remington said.
Thallemer said with the surge, local leaders will be “very cautious” with reopenings on June 14. They are keeping an eye on the numbers and using the data they get from the county and state to drive their decisions.
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At the weekly press conference on the coronavirus at city hall, Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said, “We are announcing that COVID testing has begun this morning at 7 a.m. at three MedStat locations in the county for county residents. County residents will be asked to present an insurance card and pay for that, but if they have no insurance, the testing will be done at no charge.”
He said the testing is being supported by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief & Economic Security (CARES) Act allocations from both the city and county, which have a memorandum of understanding to provide funds for the testing. Warsaw is providing $100,000 of CARES Act funds, while the county is providing $200,000 of the funds.
“That allows us to support a maximum of just a little over 2,000 tests,” Thallemer said. “We feel this is important given the increase in numbers ... We identified a concern late last week. We moved rather quickly to get this done. We’re happy to partner with MedStat – their availability, their accessibility.”
Residents can either go online to register for the testing at medstatonline.com or call the office to schedule at the following locations during the hours listed:
• MedStat Warsaw, 1500 Provident Drive, Suite A, Warsaw, IN 46580.
Hours: Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Phone 574-372-7637, option 2.
• MedStat Syracuse, 107 W. Pickwick Drive, Suite A, Syracuse, IN 46567.
Hours: Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Phone 574-457-8682, option 2.
• MedStat Nappanee, 1001 N. Main St., Suite A, Nappanee, IN 46550.
Hours: Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Phone 574-773-2509, option 2.
Thallemer said, “Testing will be on-demand for those with symptoms, those who are at risk by age or other health conditions or those who feel they’ve been exposed.”
He said they had been in contact with the Indiana governor’s office and the Indiana State Department of Health in regard to Warsaw being an Optum (state-sponsored) test site. Those test sites are similar to what Kosciusko and Warsaw are doing now.
“But we told – I think because our numbers were low for so long – we were not designated as an Optum testing site. I did make the request that they keep an eye on our numbers. If we get to the point where we can benefit from that, they assured us that they could create a testing site here in our community,” Thallemer said. “In lieu of that, (County) Commissioner (Cary) Groninger and I had a long discussion and felt like doing something now rather than waiting for a state testing site was critical in trying to bat this down.”
Groninger said when they talked about this last week, “It became pretty apparent we’re starting to see those numbers rise and we definitely want to try to do something. And after talking with different individuals, we pretty much found out some of the roadblocks, some of the struggles they were having in getting some testing. We tried to listen to what they had to say and try to remove those barriers so those who really need to get access to these tests can get the access.”
Thallemer said this testing is a critical step in trying to combat the pandemic.
Kosciusko County Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington later said, “Kosciusko County definitely has a surge of COVID cases. It took us two months to go from our first case to our 100th case just about a week ago. We have additionally 70 cases today on top of that 100 cases last week. It’s really surging. This is in the context of significant presence of cases in an adjacent county, which is receiving some national recognition for that, an unfortunate highlight of that county.”
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Elkhart County surpassed the number in neighboring St. Joseph County over last weekend, according to The Elkhart Truth. As of Wednesday, the ISDH dashboard reported Elkhart County had 1,435 cases with 29 deaths, while St. Joseph had 1,320 cases with 35 deaths.
Remington said he thought Kosciusko’s outbreak is part of that.
“Clustered housing, probably some shared occupational exposures come to play,” he said. “Our goal is to mitigate the spread. We’re certainly not going to eradicate this virus. But if we can slow it down, not swamp our local hospitals and emergency rooms, that’s our goal. And focused testing can help us get there. I’m all for this rather quickly assembled and innovative approach to creating a lower-barrier access to testing for this social set, geographic set within our county.”
He gave kudos to his communicable disease staff and epidemiologist for “seeing this. This didn’t just land in our laps. They had to really parse the data to see this. And I’m so proud of them for seeing it and helping us take a targeted approach this surge of cases.”
He said the population sector that they were referencing Wednesday morning was still just half of the new cases.
“This is part of a regional experience that has not gone away just yet,” Remington said.
At the state and national levels, Remington said those metrics continue to improve. The state’s “epi-curve” is “flattening out a little bit” while the national curve is showing improvement apart from some geographical hotspots across the country.
“So, yes, we are experiencing a surge, but in the context of the USA experience, it seems to be improving. Perhaps our surge will phase out a little quicker, we hope. But I am anticipating this will be a multi-week surge. That’s typically how these play out,” Remington said.
He said no one can perfectly predict what the surge will look like or what its legs will be like, but, “I ask that we continue as a population to be invested in things that flatten that curve, that helps us in spreading it out. It may drag it out a little longer, that’s for sure. That may be why we’re seeing this now. It could be that our late-coming surge is because we’ve been so invested in social distancing, in handwashing and masking and staying home for the last six or eight weeks. But we just don’t perfectly know why surge is coming now.”
While everyone is tired of the interventions, Remington asked people to continue to stay the course.
“The reopening plan from the state governor’s office is still appropriate. Our aggregate numbers per population remain low in our county so far, compared to neighboring counties and compared to state and national data. This county, per population, still has a low rate of COVID-19,” Remington said. “We still need to keep our heads on. ... I just need everybody’s ongoing efforts to be mindful of this pathogen, which is respectable.”
While most people will do well with an infection, he said it’s very clear two-three months into this pandemic that there are certain “quite vulnerable” subgroups, with the elderly in particular. “If nothing else, wear that mask to protect someone that you may not even know who is in proximity to you,” Remington said.
Thallemer said with the surge, local leaders will be “very cautious” with reopenings on June 14. They are keeping an eye on the numbers and using the data they get from the county and state to drive their decisions.
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