COVID Testing Numbers Down As Public Awaits Vaccine
January 20, 2021 at 11:48 p.m.
COVID Testing Numbers Down As Public Awaits Vaccine
By David [email protected]
However, the number of vaccination shots is limited to the county by what the state provides to it.
During Wednesday’s biweekly press conference at Warsaw City Hall on the pandemic, Bowen Center CEO Kurt Carlson said testing “has slowed down much since early on. Now we’re down to testing a little over 500 people per week, down from a high of about 1,700 per week. It holds pretty steady so the line isn’t long.”
He said a significant portion of the Hispanic population in the county are still coming to the test site at the county fairgrounds “so it’s a privilege to serve them.”
Carlson said he got his first COVID-19 shot from the Kosciusko County Health Department (KCHD) recently. “It was very simple, easy, quick, painless. And I get my second shot in a few weeks.”
He intends to still wear his face mask probably through at least this calendar year. “Even though I may not be susceptible again, I may still be COVID spreading, and that’s the last thing I want to do is spread the disease to anyone else,” Carlson said.
Hours for the drive-thru test site are Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; weekdays, from about 10 or 11 a.m. to about 5 or 6 p.m. There is no testing on Sundays, and holiday hours may be abbreviated.
Indiana’s color-coded COVID-19 map is updated at noon Wednesdays by the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH). Kosciusko County’s metric score Wednesday was at 2.5 (orange), but the advisory level was “red” with 324 weekly cases per 100,000 residents and a seven-day all tests positivity rate of 13.76%. The positivity rate is down but a county must remain at a lower weekly two-metric score for two consecutive weeks to move down to a lower advisory level.
KCHD Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington said, “We continue to have robust COVID case counts and positivity rates in the county.”
He said ISDH designated Kosciusko as a red county again this week. He asked citizens to “please be vigilant with masking, social distancing in crowds and good hand hygiene. As Mr. Carlson mentioned, even if you have been immunized with the COVID vaccine, continue to do those things. It is not clear whether immunization keeps you from innocently spreading viral transmission from you to somebody else, even if you are not clinically ill.”
He said people will probably be asked to mask “for months.”
The bright spot, Remington said, is the vaccine and the KCHD immunization site is “going very well.”
He said the county is in a position of being able to only give what the state allocates to it.
“We have given every single dose that they have given us. We’re averaging over 100 doses a day through our clinical site at the K21 (Health) Pavilion in Warsaw. It’s all scheduled, you just don’t show up. You have to schedule using the state’s scheduling site, which I think is easier than using the 211 phone number,” Remington said.
The website is at ourshot.in.gov.
“Our site vaccine slots have filled up quickly,” he said. “If you find that you can not access vaccine, you can play around with the zip codes in our vicinity to see if you can find a clinic with some available slots for you. Not too far of a drive away. Also, just keep checking back on our site every two days or so and see if you can schedule a visit with us.”
Remington said they hope to get more vaccine and they’ve let the state know they can accommodate more each day. “We would be anxious for more vaccine,” he said.
He encouraged people to stay tuned for the latest updates, to the governor’s press briefings and news outlets as to the latest on COVID vaccinations in Indiana.
State-by-state allocations and responsibilities will probably change with the new federal administration. Remington said he believes there will be more national chain pharmacies getting involved in the vaccinations in the weeks to come.
“It’s going very well and, just to say again, I have been most impressed with the affect in the room around people receiving vaccine. It’s a game changer for them. Very positive. People are talkative, excited just to have an opportunity to have their first dose of COVID immunization,” Remington said. “It starts to open up their world. Grandparents are thinking now they can have some visitation with grandchildren and not feel so vulnerable. That kind of thing.”
The quicker the county can get to a robust vaccinations rate, the better, he said.
He said there are very minor side effects to the vaccine as it stimulates a person’s immune system. “There’s nothing live in these vaccines. These vaccines we have now will not give you a COVID infection. And they do not change your genetics forever. Very safe. Very thankful for them. We need more.”
Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said right now, the limitation is with the number of doses that the county is being allocated.
“We expect that will expand at some point. When that happens, we certainly want to be ready. We want to make sure that we have ample sites to deliver those doses as they become available. We’ve talked about some alternate sites. We’ve talked about the Pavilion potentially, out at the armory. We’re just trying to be ready when the doses are allocated. At this point, there are no plans for those sites to be active,” Thallemer said.
He said the KCHD was doing a “marvelous” job of delivering the doses as they are allocated out at the K21 Health Pavilion. “With that being said, we are making continency plans so that when we get a call that there are potentially more doses available, we’re ready to move immediately. That’s our role right now, is being ready, but, again, at this point, we are being limited to the doses that are being given,” Thallemer said.
He said they wanted people to understand the science behind the vaccine and the importance and safety of it. A page was set up online at warsaw.in.gov/vaccine that has several videos on it to explain the vaccine in a simple way with graphics.
Asked if the arrival of the vaccine also has brought an improvement in people’s mental health in the community, Carlson said, “There are people who, as they have seen the vaccine on the horizon, have gotten signed up for it. ... It is, as Dr. Remington mentioned, it is a need, a hope. So that’s a good thing. There are people who are skeptical, and I don’t think the coming of the vaccine has helped their outlook at all if they just don’t think that this is something they want to do.”
He said he’s certainly heard a lot of enthusiasm from people who have already gotten the vaccine.
Remington said ourshot.in.gov is the place to go to schedule a vaccination. If a person has difficulty getting online, he said they should find an advocate to help them with it. There may be a wait, but he said they should hang on and keep trying.
“Get vaccinated if you can, it’s a great thing,” he said.
However, the number of vaccination shots is limited to the county by what the state provides to it.
During Wednesday’s biweekly press conference at Warsaw City Hall on the pandemic, Bowen Center CEO Kurt Carlson said testing “has slowed down much since early on. Now we’re down to testing a little over 500 people per week, down from a high of about 1,700 per week. It holds pretty steady so the line isn’t long.”
He said a significant portion of the Hispanic population in the county are still coming to the test site at the county fairgrounds “so it’s a privilege to serve them.”
Carlson said he got his first COVID-19 shot from the Kosciusko County Health Department (KCHD) recently. “It was very simple, easy, quick, painless. And I get my second shot in a few weeks.”
He intends to still wear his face mask probably through at least this calendar year. “Even though I may not be susceptible again, I may still be COVID spreading, and that’s the last thing I want to do is spread the disease to anyone else,” Carlson said.
Hours for the drive-thru test site are Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; weekdays, from about 10 or 11 a.m. to about 5 or 6 p.m. There is no testing on Sundays, and holiday hours may be abbreviated.
Indiana’s color-coded COVID-19 map is updated at noon Wednesdays by the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH). Kosciusko County’s metric score Wednesday was at 2.5 (orange), but the advisory level was “red” with 324 weekly cases per 100,000 residents and a seven-day all tests positivity rate of 13.76%. The positivity rate is down but a county must remain at a lower weekly two-metric score for two consecutive weeks to move down to a lower advisory level.
KCHD Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington said, “We continue to have robust COVID case counts and positivity rates in the county.”
He said ISDH designated Kosciusko as a red county again this week. He asked citizens to “please be vigilant with masking, social distancing in crowds and good hand hygiene. As Mr. Carlson mentioned, even if you have been immunized with the COVID vaccine, continue to do those things. It is not clear whether immunization keeps you from innocently spreading viral transmission from you to somebody else, even if you are not clinically ill.”
He said people will probably be asked to mask “for months.”
The bright spot, Remington said, is the vaccine and the KCHD immunization site is “going very well.”
He said the county is in a position of being able to only give what the state allocates to it.
“We have given every single dose that they have given us. We’re averaging over 100 doses a day through our clinical site at the K21 (Health) Pavilion in Warsaw. It’s all scheduled, you just don’t show up. You have to schedule using the state’s scheduling site, which I think is easier than using the 211 phone number,” Remington said.
The website is at ourshot.in.gov.
“Our site vaccine slots have filled up quickly,” he said. “If you find that you can not access vaccine, you can play around with the zip codes in our vicinity to see if you can find a clinic with some available slots for you. Not too far of a drive away. Also, just keep checking back on our site every two days or so and see if you can schedule a visit with us.”
Remington said they hope to get more vaccine and they’ve let the state know they can accommodate more each day. “We would be anxious for more vaccine,” he said.
He encouraged people to stay tuned for the latest updates, to the governor’s press briefings and news outlets as to the latest on COVID vaccinations in Indiana.
State-by-state allocations and responsibilities will probably change with the new federal administration. Remington said he believes there will be more national chain pharmacies getting involved in the vaccinations in the weeks to come.
“It’s going very well and, just to say again, I have been most impressed with the affect in the room around people receiving vaccine. It’s a game changer for them. Very positive. People are talkative, excited just to have an opportunity to have their first dose of COVID immunization,” Remington said. “It starts to open up their world. Grandparents are thinking now they can have some visitation with grandchildren and not feel so vulnerable. That kind of thing.”
The quicker the county can get to a robust vaccinations rate, the better, he said.
He said there are very minor side effects to the vaccine as it stimulates a person’s immune system. “There’s nothing live in these vaccines. These vaccines we have now will not give you a COVID infection. And they do not change your genetics forever. Very safe. Very thankful for them. We need more.”
Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said right now, the limitation is with the number of doses that the county is being allocated.
“We expect that will expand at some point. When that happens, we certainly want to be ready. We want to make sure that we have ample sites to deliver those doses as they become available. We’ve talked about some alternate sites. We’ve talked about the Pavilion potentially, out at the armory. We’re just trying to be ready when the doses are allocated. At this point, there are no plans for those sites to be active,” Thallemer said.
He said the KCHD was doing a “marvelous” job of delivering the doses as they are allocated out at the K21 Health Pavilion. “With that being said, we are making continency plans so that when we get a call that there are potentially more doses available, we’re ready to move immediately. That’s our role right now, is being ready, but, again, at this point, we are being limited to the doses that are being given,” Thallemer said.
He said they wanted people to understand the science behind the vaccine and the importance and safety of it. A page was set up online at warsaw.in.gov/vaccine that has several videos on it to explain the vaccine in a simple way with graphics.
Asked if the arrival of the vaccine also has brought an improvement in people’s mental health in the community, Carlson said, “There are people who, as they have seen the vaccine on the horizon, have gotten signed up for it. ... It is, as Dr. Remington mentioned, it is a need, a hope. So that’s a good thing. There are people who are skeptical, and I don’t think the coming of the vaccine has helped their outlook at all if they just don’t think that this is something they want to do.”
He said he’s certainly heard a lot of enthusiasm from people who have already gotten the vaccine.
Remington said ourshot.in.gov is the place to go to schedule a vaccination. If a person has difficulty getting online, he said they should find an advocate to help them with it. There may be a wait, but he said they should hang on and keep trying.
“Get vaccinated if you can, it’s a great thing,” he said.
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