Kosciusko County COVID-19 Numbers Improving
March 18, 2021 at 4:50 a.m.
Kosciusko County COVID-19 Numbers Improving
By Amanda Bridgman-
Kosciusko County Health Officer Dr. William Remington provided a vaccine update during Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer’s biweekly coronavirus press conference Wednesday.
Remington said since March 26, 2020, Kosciusko County has seen 8,659 cases, 112 deaths and administered 94,375 tests. As of Wednesday, the county was blue with a 2% positivity rate over a seven-day rolling average.
“In November, at our worst, we were at 26%. Today, the seven-day rolling average of new cases is seven. At our worst in November, it was 134 cases, so let that settle in,” Remington said.
As of Wednesday, 12,213 doses of vaccine have been administered in Kosciusko County. About 60,648 adults 18 and older live in the county, and 20% have had at least one dose, with 12% fully immunized, Remington said.
“I don’t think that’s doing too bad just a little over two months into it,” he said, saying the County Health Department’s vaccine clinic is unprecedented.
Since Jan. 11, the first day the vaccines arrived, KCHD has delivered 9,278 doses into arms, he said.
“Right now, we’re allocated 1,600 doses a week, running Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Yesterday, my chief nurse at the clinic said we did 399 doses yesterday. That’s a ton of work for us, I’ll just say,” Remington said. “We are doing this on the backs of approximately 230 volunteer hours weekly on top of our paid staff. There are wonderful people giving up their time without a nickel in it for them, maybe occlusionally somebody brings by lunch, and they work hard. It’s just one patient after another, and it’s been like that for three weeks now.”
Remington said the vaccine is safe and that over 109 million doses of the vaccine have been given in the United States, with only 0.0018% of reporting deaths since that.
“There’s no confirming of the cause and effect,” he said. “It’s a very safe vaccine, very thorough, multi-layered approach in watching for adverse outcomes.”
Remington and Thallemer both stressed that the ability to vaccinate residents depends on the number of vaccines that are sent here and the notice given to officials.
If a large number of vaccines are sent to the county and a need to mass vaccinate is seen, Remington said he believes a site like that would be able to be built out in a couple days.
“We’ll be ready to expand at a moment’s notice when we get the doses, and as you’ve heard, it’s kind of a fickle thing, and we are working hard ... We’re working to make sure that these doses get out, but we gotta have doses. I just want everyone to know that that is the constraint right now,” Thallemer said. “The frustration is just awaiting the products to trickle down to our community.”
Remington said KCHD has 200 doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine at the clinic, but that they’re holding it back for a special clinic that will be announced in a few days.
The homebound Hoosiers program is operational, he said, but the county is still figuring out how to implement the program that has medics administer vaccine to people at their homes.
KCHD Communicable Disease Nurse Teresa Reed said Wednesday anyone who has recently been infected with COVID-19 can wait for three months until after that date of infection to get the vaccine.
As for the future, Reed believes Kosciusko County will see a third wave of the pandemic, but she’s hopeful it won’t be nearly as bad as anything we’ve already been through.
Remington also echoed that better days are ahead and said he thinks population-based mitigation strategies – the masks, the social distancing – will slowly taper off.
Remington said the county will continue to follow Gov. Eric Holcomb’s directive.
“We’ll continue to look to that and stick with that plan as far as those unpopular and debated population-based mitigation strategies,” Remington said. “I think there is a place for them, and I don’t think any of us perfectly know exactly how this will totally ease off and be a final end game, but it will come. It will. So these are better days in the COVID pandemic I think, is my bottom line.”
The next coronavirus press conference is 10:30 a.m. March 31 at City Hall and also available to be viewed live on the city of Warsaw’s website.
Kosciusko County Health Officer Dr. William Remington provided a vaccine update during Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer’s biweekly coronavirus press conference Wednesday.
Remington said since March 26, 2020, Kosciusko County has seen 8,659 cases, 112 deaths and administered 94,375 tests. As of Wednesday, the county was blue with a 2% positivity rate over a seven-day rolling average.
“In November, at our worst, we were at 26%. Today, the seven-day rolling average of new cases is seven. At our worst in November, it was 134 cases, so let that settle in,” Remington said.
As of Wednesday, 12,213 doses of vaccine have been administered in Kosciusko County. About 60,648 adults 18 and older live in the county, and 20% have had at least one dose, with 12% fully immunized, Remington said.
“I don’t think that’s doing too bad just a little over two months into it,” he said, saying the County Health Department’s vaccine clinic is unprecedented.
Since Jan. 11, the first day the vaccines arrived, KCHD has delivered 9,278 doses into arms, he said.
“Right now, we’re allocated 1,600 doses a week, running Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Yesterday, my chief nurse at the clinic said we did 399 doses yesterday. That’s a ton of work for us, I’ll just say,” Remington said. “We are doing this on the backs of approximately 230 volunteer hours weekly on top of our paid staff. There are wonderful people giving up their time without a nickel in it for them, maybe occlusionally somebody brings by lunch, and they work hard. It’s just one patient after another, and it’s been like that for three weeks now.”
Remington said the vaccine is safe and that over 109 million doses of the vaccine have been given in the United States, with only 0.0018% of reporting deaths since that.
“There’s no confirming of the cause and effect,” he said. “It’s a very safe vaccine, very thorough, multi-layered approach in watching for adverse outcomes.”
Remington and Thallemer both stressed that the ability to vaccinate residents depends on the number of vaccines that are sent here and the notice given to officials.
If a large number of vaccines are sent to the county and a need to mass vaccinate is seen, Remington said he believes a site like that would be able to be built out in a couple days.
“We’ll be ready to expand at a moment’s notice when we get the doses, and as you’ve heard, it’s kind of a fickle thing, and we are working hard ... We’re working to make sure that these doses get out, but we gotta have doses. I just want everyone to know that that is the constraint right now,” Thallemer said. “The frustration is just awaiting the products to trickle down to our community.”
Remington said KCHD has 200 doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine at the clinic, but that they’re holding it back for a special clinic that will be announced in a few days.
The homebound Hoosiers program is operational, he said, but the county is still figuring out how to implement the program that has medics administer vaccine to people at their homes.
KCHD Communicable Disease Nurse Teresa Reed said Wednesday anyone who has recently been infected with COVID-19 can wait for three months until after that date of infection to get the vaccine.
As for the future, Reed believes Kosciusko County will see a third wave of the pandemic, but she’s hopeful it won’t be nearly as bad as anything we’ve already been through.
Remington also echoed that better days are ahead and said he thinks population-based mitigation strategies – the masks, the social distancing – will slowly taper off.
Remington said the county will continue to follow Gov. Eric Holcomb’s directive.
“We’ll continue to look to that and stick with that plan as far as those unpopular and debated population-based mitigation strategies,” Remington said. “I think there is a place for them, and I don’t think any of us perfectly know exactly how this will totally ease off and be a final end game, but it will come. It will. So these are better days in the COVID pandemic I think, is my bottom line.”
The next coronavirus press conference is 10:30 a.m. March 31 at City Hall and also available to be viewed live on the city of Warsaw’s website.
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