Remington Updates County Health Board On COVID-19Kosciusko County Board of Health met Monday and heard Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington give an update on the COVID-19 situation.
“It’s a marathon at this point and pretty exhausting for all of us,” he said.
Reflecting back on the COVID numbers since the county’s first case March 26, Remington said the county had 100 by May 20 and then in seven days, the cases doubled.
Remington attributed that rise to post-Memorial Day activities and spoke about the indication of the virus affecting the Hispanic community in Kosciusko County. He said the county and the city put out a joint effort to help provide information and resources to those hardest hit minorities and he believes that helped.
Following the post-Memorial Day spike, Remington said, “I thought, here we go, but it didn’t. We’ve just had a steady drumbeat,” he said of keeping the curve steady.
The issue now, he said, is the opening of schools looming in early and mid-August in the county and the need for more testing to be available for when students get sent home. Right now, the lines at the urgent care settings are getting long, and the wait time for results are backed up to seven to 10 days.
“Which doesn’t help you a lot with contact tracing,” he said. “That’s going to be a little challenging to get kids tested when they get sent home from school. We will have to have more serving lines to handle that within the next month.”
He also said that he’s “all for schools getting back.”
Remington said the Kosciusko County Health Department will continue to look to and follow guidance from the Indiana State Department of Health and encouraged citizens to check the ISDH Dashboard on ISDH’s website for localized information.
“It’s become very sophisticated,” Remington said of the dashboard, saying information and statistics about all types of topics – including long-term care facilities – can be found there.
Remington also reminded the board that there is likely to be an increase in positive cases in the county soon, as ISDH has been administering roughly 200 tests per day at the pop-up testing center at Center Lake. ISDH began that testing all last week and plans to remain here through this week, he said.
“We’re holding our own in this county and at Kosciusko Community Hospital,” he said, unlike the situation in Elkhart County. “Our cases are like one-third of Elkhart’s.”
He also reminds citizens that face masks are important. “Wear them,” he said. Remington also said that he doesn’t think Kosciusko County requires a mask mandate as some counties around the state are doing. He said right now he strongly recommends people wear them, and that he would need to discuss a mandate with several local leaders before pulling that lever.
Also Monday, the board heard from KCHD Administrator Bob Weaver that water testing at pools and lakes have had good results and they have not had to close any of them. Weaver said this year his department went from dealing with nearly 100 food trucks to only “a handful” after area fairs and events were shut down due to the health pandemic. The pop-up food trucks seen around the county are randomly visited by the health department twice per summer season, he said, and more often if complaints are lodged.
The next Kosciusko County Board of Health meeting is 6 p.m. Oct. 19 in the old Courthouse, 100 W. Center St., Warsaw.
