COVID-19 Deaths On The Rise; Vaccine On The Way
November 26, 2020 at 9:37 p.m.
COVID-19 Deaths On The Rise; Vaccine On The Way
By David [email protected]
“The numbers in Kosciusko County are really high, we’re up over 4,000 cases,” Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington reported. “It took three months to get to our 1,000th case and here, two, three months after that, we’re up over 4,500 cases.”
He said there have been 39 deaths so far.
“I think it’s fair to say, based on conversations that I am personally having, this is no longer theoretical to a number of you. You’re feeling it. It’s palpable. You have anecdotal experiences of your own or loved ones. It’s a real deal.”
Hospitals are seeing a “push capacity,” particularly in Elkhart, St. Joe and Allen counties nearby, he said.
“The hospitals are being pushed. Care is being diverted in some of those venues. Semi-elective procedures are being pushed back. They really are asking for our help,” Remington said.
Testing is becoming a challenge as with a surge of cases there’s a surge of demand and interest for testing. Remington said he’d hate to see where Kosciusko County would be without the testing Bowen Center is offering.
“They’re testing hundreds a day. Despite that, you’ll see long lines. And test results take a while. That is not the Bowen Center’s testing site’s fault,” Remington said.
Test results are taking a while because the labs are swamped.
“So be patient,” Remington said. “If I may ask, if you are just curious and want to see what your test is, please don’t get in a line of cars for that. If you are symptomatic, certainly seek a test. If you consider yourself a close contact, get a test. For those of you creating institutional requirements for testing, I’d ask you to look real hard at that to see if you really need a test to allow somebody back in your particular jurisdiction.”
Governor Eric Holcomb’s executive order is in play for Kosciusko County Health Department.
“This county remains orange this week. I am just certain we are going to turn red in a week or two,” Remington said.
To better track the change in COVID-19 community spread week over week, the Indiana Department of Health has a county weekly scoring map. The map assigns each county a color based on the average of scores assigned for the number of weekly cases per 100,000 and its seven-day positivity rate. Blue is the lowest at zero points, followed by yellow at 1, orange at 2 and red at 3.
Remington gave a heads-up to those who have scheduled special seasonal events or large gatherings.
“The language is stronger speaking against those, should we turn red, and we may engage with you in a different tone of voice, temperament, directive from the health department with your upcoming event,” he said.
Remington said there are some positive things to take note of: therapeutics, the monoclonal antibody cocktail from Regeneron looks promising and has had emergency use authorization and thousands of doses will be available to outpatients. “How that will flow, who will be offered that is not entirely clear just yet, but it looks good,” he said.
He reiterated that people should get their immunizations against influenza. The flu is low right now, but its season is just around the corner.
“COVID immunization is coming. Perhaps within the next three weeks we will have some vaccine to frontline workers. Details are pending but a lot of planning is in place,” Remington said.
He reminded everyone to wear masks, avoid crowds, wash their hands and stay home if sick.
“All those things are strongly needed by all of us to try to slow the spread and decrease the demand and the fallout at our healthcare institutions and perhaps save some lives,” Remington said.
He said the Health Department is poised to offer a little stronger arm on the enforcement side.
“We have repositioned staff to be available to handle complaints for entities of concern to our constituency in the county, and we have more people that can go knock on a door, go through expectations for the business or the food establishment,” Remington said. “Mostly in terms of an educational piece. It does have some potential teeth in it should we need to do that and that outline of how that would play will be handed to the businesses and food establishments that we hear about of concern.”
He said they do have a way of ultimately closing businesses, but it’s not something they want to do as so many businesses are already feeling the pandemic economically.
“We will get through this. Eventually, this will change and get better, but I’m afraid that we’re looking at weeks of this and the death rate – just to be honest with you – is really going to shoot up here in the next month. Not to frighten people, but please, really respect this pandemic. It’s really showing its teeth at this point,” Remington said.
Bowen Center CEO Kurt Carlson thanked county and city officials and the fair board for making it possible to have access to the Shrine building at the fairgrounds for the testing site after the tents at the Bowen Center Health Clinic weren’t working because of the weather and other considerations.
At 10 a.m. Monday, testing at the Shrine building began, taking about three hours to smooth out the process.
“In terms of the testing numbers, we’ve finished our sixth week and we’re in our seventh week now. The first week, we ran 328 tests. Last week it was 1,672 tests that were administered,” Carlson said.
One of the most at-risk populations for COVID who also have the least access to healthcare is the Hispanic population. Carlson said most of the workforce he has working exclusively at the testing site are bilingual and bicultural. Hispanics are 7.88% of Kosciusko County’s population; 12% of the people Bowen Center has tested are Hispanic. “So we’re actually reaching that population,” he said, noting that some days the percentage of people coming through for testing that are Hispanic are “much higher than that.”
When the vaccine becomes available, Remington said they’ll need more “serving” lines and more “hands on deck” with it. “So, hopefully, we’ll have that here in a few weeks.”
He said it’s all about procuring the vaccine, which will come from the Indiana State Department of Health. “Allocation is not perfectly clear, at least in my mind, of how that will work. So it’ll come in a hurry once it comes, I think,” Remington said.
Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said he got a note from the fire territory that fire stations are being considered as vaccination sites as well, possibly even distribution sites, depending on the vaccine. “Thankfully, our organization in this county is such that we’ll figure it out,” he said, noting that as one positive.
Kosciusko County qualified to have two testing sites based on its population. The first was the Bowen Center site in Warsaw, with the second site initially planned as a mobile site.
“But we did not anticipate this model. The state’s guidelines first that I got, they anticipated 100 people a day and you could do that with three staff. ... We blew that out of the water immediately. We did 102 our first day, which has grown ever since then,” Carlson said.
He didn’t think the original funding for the first site was in any way going to cover the costs because he has as many as a dozen people working out there now.
“It’s just going to go up from there,” Carlson said.
County Health Department Administrator Bob Weaver has gotten county support and submitted a plan to the ISDH to use that second allocation of money to continue to fund the first site.
“We’re doing the work of two sites, and I think we really should recognize that and let the money flow to support this site,” Carlson said.
Though the site is centrally located in the county, Carlson recognized that not everyone may be able to travel to a testing site in Warsaw from other parts of the county. However, he said it’s not feasible to have the mobile testing site with the volume of testing they’re seeing and there’s just not enough dollars.
Thallemer said CARES Act funding federally allocates that money to different parts, including testing. He said there’s talk there may be a second CARES Act stimulus package that could potentially address it.
He said the city and county have used CARES Act dollars to supplement testing, and there is CARES Act testing in Syracuse until the end of the month. “So that is still available in the north, but those dollars have to be spent by the end of the year, so I would anticipate that we might get some more allocation and/or at least get that testing beefed up. That’s just maybe a wish. I know with the vaccine distribution maybe being the larger issue at hand, they’ll be pivoting more toward that, but at least I think we’ve done our part to spread it out,” Thallemer said.
He said having a central site that is accessible is good.
Speaking on the mental health of the community as it deals with the pandemic, Carlson said Bowen Center has a student assistance program with many schools to provide pre-paid services for an individual child or family to access. “We’ve seen more than a 30% .... use of that since before the pandemic,” he said, adding that the employee assistance program has grown 10-15%.
“The number of schools that have requested as many as one- or two-year long contracts for the student assistance program has just dramatically accelerated. So, the further out Bowen Center goes, the more schools are interested now that we provide home-based, school-based services,” Carlson said.
“The numbers in Kosciusko County are really high, we’re up over 4,000 cases,” Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington reported. “It took three months to get to our 1,000th case and here, two, three months after that, we’re up over 4,500 cases.”
He said there have been 39 deaths so far.
“I think it’s fair to say, based on conversations that I am personally having, this is no longer theoretical to a number of you. You’re feeling it. It’s palpable. You have anecdotal experiences of your own or loved ones. It’s a real deal.”
Hospitals are seeing a “push capacity,” particularly in Elkhart, St. Joe and Allen counties nearby, he said.
“The hospitals are being pushed. Care is being diverted in some of those venues. Semi-elective procedures are being pushed back. They really are asking for our help,” Remington said.
Testing is becoming a challenge as with a surge of cases there’s a surge of demand and interest for testing. Remington said he’d hate to see where Kosciusko County would be without the testing Bowen Center is offering.
“They’re testing hundreds a day. Despite that, you’ll see long lines. And test results take a while. That is not the Bowen Center’s testing site’s fault,” Remington said.
Test results are taking a while because the labs are swamped.
“So be patient,” Remington said. “If I may ask, if you are just curious and want to see what your test is, please don’t get in a line of cars for that. If you are symptomatic, certainly seek a test. If you consider yourself a close contact, get a test. For those of you creating institutional requirements for testing, I’d ask you to look real hard at that to see if you really need a test to allow somebody back in your particular jurisdiction.”
Governor Eric Holcomb’s executive order is in play for Kosciusko County Health Department.
“This county remains orange this week. I am just certain we are going to turn red in a week or two,” Remington said.
To better track the change in COVID-19 community spread week over week, the Indiana Department of Health has a county weekly scoring map. The map assigns each county a color based on the average of scores assigned for the number of weekly cases per 100,000 and its seven-day positivity rate. Blue is the lowest at zero points, followed by yellow at 1, orange at 2 and red at 3.
Remington gave a heads-up to those who have scheduled special seasonal events or large gatherings.
“The language is stronger speaking against those, should we turn red, and we may engage with you in a different tone of voice, temperament, directive from the health department with your upcoming event,” he said.
Remington said there are some positive things to take note of: therapeutics, the monoclonal antibody cocktail from Regeneron looks promising and has had emergency use authorization and thousands of doses will be available to outpatients. “How that will flow, who will be offered that is not entirely clear just yet, but it looks good,” he said.
He reiterated that people should get their immunizations against influenza. The flu is low right now, but its season is just around the corner.
“COVID immunization is coming. Perhaps within the next three weeks we will have some vaccine to frontline workers. Details are pending but a lot of planning is in place,” Remington said.
He reminded everyone to wear masks, avoid crowds, wash their hands and stay home if sick.
“All those things are strongly needed by all of us to try to slow the spread and decrease the demand and the fallout at our healthcare institutions and perhaps save some lives,” Remington said.
He said the Health Department is poised to offer a little stronger arm on the enforcement side.
“We have repositioned staff to be available to handle complaints for entities of concern to our constituency in the county, and we have more people that can go knock on a door, go through expectations for the business or the food establishment,” Remington said. “Mostly in terms of an educational piece. It does have some potential teeth in it should we need to do that and that outline of how that would play will be handed to the businesses and food establishments that we hear about of concern.”
He said they do have a way of ultimately closing businesses, but it’s not something they want to do as so many businesses are already feeling the pandemic economically.
“We will get through this. Eventually, this will change and get better, but I’m afraid that we’re looking at weeks of this and the death rate – just to be honest with you – is really going to shoot up here in the next month. Not to frighten people, but please, really respect this pandemic. It’s really showing its teeth at this point,” Remington said.
Bowen Center CEO Kurt Carlson thanked county and city officials and the fair board for making it possible to have access to the Shrine building at the fairgrounds for the testing site after the tents at the Bowen Center Health Clinic weren’t working because of the weather and other considerations.
At 10 a.m. Monday, testing at the Shrine building began, taking about three hours to smooth out the process.
“In terms of the testing numbers, we’ve finished our sixth week and we’re in our seventh week now. The first week, we ran 328 tests. Last week it was 1,672 tests that were administered,” Carlson said.
One of the most at-risk populations for COVID who also have the least access to healthcare is the Hispanic population. Carlson said most of the workforce he has working exclusively at the testing site are bilingual and bicultural. Hispanics are 7.88% of Kosciusko County’s population; 12% of the people Bowen Center has tested are Hispanic. “So we’re actually reaching that population,” he said, noting that some days the percentage of people coming through for testing that are Hispanic are “much higher than that.”
When the vaccine becomes available, Remington said they’ll need more “serving” lines and more “hands on deck” with it. “So, hopefully, we’ll have that here in a few weeks.”
He said it’s all about procuring the vaccine, which will come from the Indiana State Department of Health. “Allocation is not perfectly clear, at least in my mind, of how that will work. So it’ll come in a hurry once it comes, I think,” Remington said.
Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said he got a note from the fire territory that fire stations are being considered as vaccination sites as well, possibly even distribution sites, depending on the vaccine. “Thankfully, our organization in this county is such that we’ll figure it out,” he said, noting that as one positive.
Kosciusko County qualified to have two testing sites based on its population. The first was the Bowen Center site in Warsaw, with the second site initially planned as a mobile site.
“But we did not anticipate this model. The state’s guidelines first that I got, they anticipated 100 people a day and you could do that with three staff. ... We blew that out of the water immediately. We did 102 our first day, which has grown ever since then,” Carlson said.
He didn’t think the original funding for the first site was in any way going to cover the costs because he has as many as a dozen people working out there now.
“It’s just going to go up from there,” Carlson said.
County Health Department Administrator Bob Weaver has gotten county support and submitted a plan to the ISDH to use that second allocation of money to continue to fund the first site.
“We’re doing the work of two sites, and I think we really should recognize that and let the money flow to support this site,” Carlson said.
Though the site is centrally located in the county, Carlson recognized that not everyone may be able to travel to a testing site in Warsaw from other parts of the county. However, he said it’s not feasible to have the mobile testing site with the volume of testing they’re seeing and there’s just not enough dollars.
Thallemer said CARES Act funding federally allocates that money to different parts, including testing. He said there’s talk there may be a second CARES Act stimulus package that could potentially address it.
He said the city and county have used CARES Act dollars to supplement testing, and there is CARES Act testing in Syracuse until the end of the month. “So that is still available in the north, but those dollars have to be spent by the end of the year, so I would anticipate that we might get some more allocation and/or at least get that testing beefed up. That’s just maybe a wish. I know with the vaccine distribution maybe being the larger issue at hand, they’ll be pivoting more toward that, but at least I think we’ve done our part to spread it out,” Thallemer said.
He said having a central site that is accessible is good.
Speaking on the mental health of the community as it deals with the pandemic, Carlson said Bowen Center has a student assistance program with many schools to provide pre-paid services for an individual child or family to access. “We’ve seen more than a 30% .... use of that since before the pandemic,” he said, adding that the employee assistance program has grown 10-15%.
“The number of schools that have requested as many as one- or two-year long contracts for the student assistance program has just dramatically accelerated. So, the further out Bowen Center goes, the more schools are interested now that we provide home-based, school-based services,” Carlson said.
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