County’s coronavirus hotspot designation reinforces need for measures to prevent spread

Dubois County’s Covid-19 case count has been on a steady rise for the past two weeks outpacing more populated areas in the state.

Over a 14 day reporting period beginning on Thursday, July 9, cases have risen from 290 to 486 as of the Thursday, July 22 report from the Dubois County Health Department. In that same time frame, recoveries have only increased from 249 to 290.

With an adjusted per capita rate based on a population of 100,000 people, Dubois County is averaging 34.8 new cases daily and is leading the state as a viral hotspot. Posey County with 29.8 cases per day per 100,000, Vanderburgh County with 26.1 cases per day and Marshall County with 25 cases per 100,000 per day follow Dubois County as the top hotspots in the state.

Overall, Indiana cases are increasing at about 11.3 per day per 100,000 people.

Two weeks ago, Dubois County was averaging 9.7 cases per day adjusted for 100,000 people.

This data comes from https://globalepidemics.org/key-metrics-for-covid-suppression/ a site created by the Harvard Global Health Institute.

The rising number of cases led local officials to issue a joint proclamation urging residents to wear masks while in public, continue social distancing, and practice preventative hygiene. Within that proclamation was the implication that if the number of cases didn’t level out, on top of a mask mandate, new stay-at-home orders could be issued.

While local leaders continued to grapple with whether or not a mask mandate would be issued, Wednesday, Indiana Governor Holcomb announced he would sign an executive order making masks mandatory across the state beginning Monday, July 27, 2020. The governor stated there weren’t going to be “mask police” but the order would come with a potential Class B Misdemeanor charge for those who did not follow its directive.

Locally, area leaders and those tasked with handling the county’s response issued statements supporting the governor’s decision to make masks mandatory. They are worried about how the virus will continue to spread in the community until it reaches those groups that are most susceptible to death or hospitalization.

According to the Indiana State Department of Health on Thursday at about 8 a.m., 58.8 percent of the total cases in Dubois County are being found in residents between the ages of 20 and 49. Ages 0-19 account for 12.4 percent of cases and 50 and up account for 28.8 percent of cases.

With cases concentrated in younger age groups, health officials feel that might be why the virus hasn’t been as deadly as it has been in other areas.

“I know some individuals that get it have more symptoms and get sicker than others in the younger generations, but they have generally been doing okay with it,” Shawn Werner, administrative director of the Dubois County Health Department stated.

This may lend to the flippant attitude regarding Covid-19 demonstrated by some people, but as the virus spreads through Dubois County’s younger population, Werner is concerned about how will it impact the older residents.

“As you start getting large infection rates in the younger population and then they go visit their grandparents or they do a nursing home visit outdoors and the virus is accidentally transmitted to the elderly population, that is how people become really ill,” Werner said.

“We are trying to prevent any of our Dubois County residents from dying,” he added.

That is why masks have become so important in stopping and slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

“Based on all the guidance we are hearing from the CDC, this is the right thing to do,” said Tammy Humbert, director of Dubois County Emergency Management.

She pointed out that there are no particular areas or events in which people have contracted the virus. It is in the community.

“It’s community-wide at this moment,” Werner said. “At least that is what we’re seeing as far as the case investigations coming in. We can’t pinpoint all these cases to a specific event although they may be contributing factors.”

“It’s the younger generation going out and about their normal everyday lives, riding in cars together, hanging out but not wearing masks,” Humbert said about the prevalence of the virus in those under 50. “I think they are spreading the disease and not even knowing it because a lot of our stats show they are asymptomatic.”

That is the point of the mask. If people wear them while they are asymptomatic, they are lowering the chance of the virus being spread while they interact socially.

“I know we heard don’t wear a mask in the beginning and then we were told to wear a mask,” Humbert said. “For the people on the frontlines, this is something that has to be done. Because we are at that point where we don’t know what else to do other than get people to wear masks.”

It is a matter of protecting those populations who are highly susceptible to this disease.

Werner personally knows how sick Covid-19 can make someone. He was found to be Covid-19 positive early in the pandemic after the state’s stay-at-home order went into effect.

While he was working at home, he began feeling really worn down and had some nausea, but he felt it was likely from the stress brought on by the pandemic and the heavy workload it caused for the health department. Unfortunately, the symptoms progressed to a fever and chills.

“Then on the fourth day, I lost total sense of smell,” Werner explained. “I was a little bit alarmed and got tested.”

His test came back positive.

It took him about ten to fourteen days to get the point of feeling a little better. “I was really tired and didn’t have any energy,” he explained. “Towards the end, I had a kind of tightness in my chest and I was getting really bad headaches.”

But it never progressed to the point where he felt it was necessary to go to the hospital.

In light of his own experience with the virus as a healthy outdoorsman, his public statements about the seriousness of the illness related to the virus have added meaning.

“I didn’t want to infect anyone else around me,” Werner said about his experience. “I wouldn’t want my actions to send someone to the hospital or even die. I mean that would be the worst thing that I would ever have to go through.”

The health department also feels the public is not taking the quarantine orders seriously. People are getting tested and then not quarantining until they get the results.

“If you are tested because you are named a close contact to a positive case, you need to stay home,” Werner said.

Because of the viral load that is necessary in a person’s body for the virus to be detected, it is important for anyone who came in contact with a positive case to remain in quarantine for 14 days even if they test negative for the virus.

“If you get tested on day two or day five, it may be too early in the incubation period to detect the virus,” Werner said. “You may turn positive a day or two later and that is why the 14-day quarantine still needs to be completed.”

Many people are being identified as a contact and once they test negative, they continue their daily routines.

“I think that is causing some of our problems,” Werner said. “It takes time to replicate [in a person] and it could take up to 14 days for that to happen.”

Another issue the health department and others on the frontlines of the pandemic is the multitude of sources of information, the statistics and the misinformation that is being shared on social media.

Werner and Humbert both recommended residents seek out information through credible sources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Indiana State Department of Health. Werner explained even sites from some apparently credible sources like a tracker provided from IU may not have the most up to date information.

“We are sending data to the Indiana State Department of Health daily and it’s updated daily, some of these sites update once a week,” he explained.

In the end, he and Humbert both reinforced that to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Dubois County residents needed to wear masks, continue social distancing, stay home if they are sick, and wash their hands frequently.