Health Officer Talks COVID-19 Surge, Schools Reopening
June 17, 2020 at 10:37 p.m.
Health Officer Talks COVID-19 Surge, Schools Reopening
By David [email protected]
County Commissioner Cary Groninger said Kosciusko County Health Department Administrator Bob Weaver gave him that figure Wednesday morning.
“Which is good that we’re getting those individuals tested that need that done. That’s been good,” Groninger said at Wednesday’s weekly press conference on COVID-19 at Warsaw City Hall.
The city and county are using allocated CARES Act funding to provide COVID-19 testing for residents of Kosciusko County. Those with health insurance are asked to provide a copy of their insurance card for billing. Otherwise, there is no charge for the testing to the resident. Residents can either go online to register for the testing at medstatonline.com or call one of the three MedStat offices in the county (Nappanee, Syracuse and Warsaw) to schedule a test.
Kosciusko County Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington said the COVID-19 cases in the county continue to go up.
“It took us to Memorial Day, roughly, to get to the 100th case and since then, approximately 100 cases each week, so we’re over 300 now,” Remington said.
The Kosciusko County Health Department received a total of 14 new cases between noon Monday and noon Wednesday, giving the county a total of 349 positive cases and two deaths.
The frontline “feel to this” is a little “heavier,” he said, but he doesn’t sense the local hospitals are swamped by “any stretch of the imagination.”
“They’re seeing a few more cases regionally. Elkhart County, their hospitals are seeing substantial surges into their ICUs,” Remington said.
He continues to encourage social distancing, wearing face masks in a crowded environment if a crowded environment can’t be avoided, handwashing and if you’re ill, stay home.
“Our surge now, I think, is a bit heavier than the small surge we felt about two months ago earlier in this COVID pandemic. We didn’t have so much testing then. We have a lot of testing now, so some of our numbers, honestly, are because we are doing a lot more testing, but it’s also because we have more illness,” Remington said. “Fortunately, most people ill with this will never need to be in the hospital. It’ll be a mild, self-limited illness, a few days, and then you’re better.”
If anyone is mildly ill with an acute respiratory syndrome, he said they should stay home. There are many opportunities for testing if they want to be tested for COVID-19, he said, and cost-barrier free. If a person is increasingly worried about their respiratory system, they should seek healthcare beginning with their private physician. If a person becomes really concerned about their overall presentation, especially if they’re becoming short of breath, then they should get to the emergency room.
“We have schools on our minds at the health department and we’re pinning our resources to them in the last few days. We are less in the weeds with each individual case contact investigation. The state has a contractor that is doing the lionshare of that now. We are still engaging locally,” Remington said.
He said the local health department is trying to lean into the best guidance of the Indiana Department of Education and Indiana State Department of Health, but it remains a “very fluid and dynamic” topic.
“We want to be there for our local school administrators and the school nurses who will be feeling this in a big way. We will want to be freed up to help them as they engage in students going back to school in just a few weeks,” Remington said.
“So, yes, we’re seeing more cases. It’s not a disaster. Most new cases are not critically ill, thankfully,” he said.
Asked for more information about the health department pivoting more resources toward the schools, Remington said, “We’re very attentive to the quickly-evolving direction from the State Department of Health and their thinking toward reopening schools. That alone takes a significant amount of time to dig through the documentation that’s coming to us.”
He said the directive from the IDOE on reopening schools was “pretty extensive” and “had a lot in it.”
The health department needs to spend more time with that information, which means diverting their time and energy from other areas like case contacting. They need to engage more with school administrators and nurses.
“We anticipate a growing amount of requests of our department from them. Already, we’re sensing that to help them wade through all the details of what this looks like if they open up in a few weeks,” Remington said, noting it’s not the intent of the Health Department to draft the school corporations’ policies for them. The Health Department will just serve as a listening ear and advisers.
State guidance on the reopening of schools will continue to morph, he said, and as it gets closer to the reopening of schools and particularly when school doors open, “There are going to be lessons learned pretty quickly. Strategies that are just not tentable and others that are durable. Expert guidance, if you will, from Indianapolis, I think, will shift quickly.”
Asked about the testing of students and/or staff, Remington said, “Testing in schools is, again, I think another fluid discussion. I have not seen that strongly in the guidance, at least that I have seen, with surveillance testing applied to schools.”
Whether that will come or not, he said he didn’t know and that depended on many factors.
“So testing still centers around, I think, best applied to those that are ill, close contacts of those that are ill” and certain demographic subsets of the population, like at nursing homes, he said. “But I think still testing is best applied when it starts with a sick individual and works from there.”
LaGrange County had a spike in cases and earlier this week mandated masks for residents. Remington said, “I personally feel that if we keep saying the messages we’re saying and using the voluntary masking approach, that’s good enough.”
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County Commissioner Cary Groninger said Kosciusko County Health Department Administrator Bob Weaver gave him that figure Wednesday morning.
“Which is good that we’re getting those individuals tested that need that done. That’s been good,” Groninger said at Wednesday’s weekly press conference on COVID-19 at Warsaw City Hall.
The city and county are using allocated CARES Act funding to provide COVID-19 testing for residents of Kosciusko County. Those with health insurance are asked to provide a copy of their insurance card for billing. Otherwise, there is no charge for the testing to the resident. Residents can either go online to register for the testing at medstatonline.com or call one of the three MedStat offices in the county (Nappanee, Syracuse and Warsaw) to schedule a test.
Kosciusko County Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington said the COVID-19 cases in the county continue to go up.
“It took us to Memorial Day, roughly, to get to the 100th case and since then, approximately 100 cases each week, so we’re over 300 now,” Remington said.
The Kosciusko County Health Department received a total of 14 new cases between noon Monday and noon Wednesday, giving the county a total of 349 positive cases and two deaths.
The frontline “feel to this” is a little “heavier,” he said, but he doesn’t sense the local hospitals are swamped by “any stretch of the imagination.”
“They’re seeing a few more cases regionally. Elkhart County, their hospitals are seeing substantial surges into their ICUs,” Remington said.
He continues to encourage social distancing, wearing face masks in a crowded environment if a crowded environment can’t be avoided, handwashing and if you’re ill, stay home.
“Our surge now, I think, is a bit heavier than the small surge we felt about two months ago earlier in this COVID pandemic. We didn’t have so much testing then. We have a lot of testing now, so some of our numbers, honestly, are because we are doing a lot more testing, but it’s also because we have more illness,” Remington said. “Fortunately, most people ill with this will never need to be in the hospital. It’ll be a mild, self-limited illness, a few days, and then you’re better.”
If anyone is mildly ill with an acute respiratory syndrome, he said they should stay home. There are many opportunities for testing if they want to be tested for COVID-19, he said, and cost-barrier free. If a person is increasingly worried about their respiratory system, they should seek healthcare beginning with their private physician. If a person becomes really concerned about their overall presentation, especially if they’re becoming short of breath, then they should get to the emergency room.
“We have schools on our minds at the health department and we’re pinning our resources to them in the last few days. We are less in the weeds with each individual case contact investigation. The state has a contractor that is doing the lionshare of that now. We are still engaging locally,” Remington said.
He said the local health department is trying to lean into the best guidance of the Indiana Department of Education and Indiana State Department of Health, but it remains a “very fluid and dynamic” topic.
“We want to be there for our local school administrators and the school nurses who will be feeling this in a big way. We will want to be freed up to help them as they engage in students going back to school in just a few weeks,” Remington said.
“So, yes, we’re seeing more cases. It’s not a disaster. Most new cases are not critically ill, thankfully,” he said.
Asked for more information about the health department pivoting more resources toward the schools, Remington said, “We’re very attentive to the quickly-evolving direction from the State Department of Health and their thinking toward reopening schools. That alone takes a significant amount of time to dig through the documentation that’s coming to us.”
He said the directive from the IDOE on reopening schools was “pretty extensive” and “had a lot in it.”
The health department needs to spend more time with that information, which means diverting their time and energy from other areas like case contacting. They need to engage more with school administrators and nurses.
“We anticipate a growing amount of requests of our department from them. Already, we’re sensing that to help them wade through all the details of what this looks like if they open up in a few weeks,” Remington said, noting it’s not the intent of the Health Department to draft the school corporations’ policies for them. The Health Department will just serve as a listening ear and advisers.
State guidance on the reopening of schools will continue to morph, he said, and as it gets closer to the reopening of schools and particularly when school doors open, “There are going to be lessons learned pretty quickly. Strategies that are just not tentable and others that are durable. Expert guidance, if you will, from Indianapolis, I think, will shift quickly.”
Asked about the testing of students and/or staff, Remington said, “Testing in schools is, again, I think another fluid discussion. I have not seen that strongly in the guidance, at least that I have seen, with surveillance testing applied to schools.”
Whether that will come or not, he said he didn’t know and that depended on many factors.
“So testing still centers around, I think, best applied to those that are ill, close contacts of those that are ill” and certain demographic subsets of the population, like at nursing homes, he said. “But I think still testing is best applied when it starts with a sick individual and works from there.”
LaGrange County had a spike in cases and earlier this week mandated masks for residents. Remington said, “I personally feel that if we keep saying the messages we’re saying and using the voluntary masking approach, that’s good enough.”
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