Dubois County Health Dept gives update on local Covid-19 response
Among the pieces of information shared at a press conference held Thursday afternoon by the Dubois County Health Department was the number of tests conducted — 1,110 — and the number of Dubois County residents hospitalized — six — since the pandemic started.
As of Thursday at the time of the press conference, the county had 169 Covid-19 cases, 37 recoveries, and two deaths.
Dubois County Health Department Administrative Director Jo Ann Spaulding expressed condolences to the families and friends of those lost to the disease and prayers for those fighting the disease.
On a positive note, Spaulding reported there had been no cases in any of the Dubois County nursing homes. Nursing homes closed down very quickly at the onset of the pandemic in the country and have restricted visitors and enacted protocols to ensure the safety of their residents.
She stated that local officials have been working closely with the state in regards to concerns and strategies to control infection. “We are fortunate to have and ISDH (Indiana State Department of Health) Optum (OptumServe) Testing site located in Jasper at the armory,” Spaulding said.
She explained that Memorial Hospital will continue to operate a testing site but it has been moved to the Huntingburg Urgent Care Center located at 507 E. 19th Street. Testing will begin there on Monday.
According to Melanie Powell, Memorial Hospital’s Director of Business Development and Marketing, the move to the urgent care center was done because the center already operates daily whereas the site in Jasper was set up as a temporary testing site.
On Memorial Day, Urgent Care will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. but outside of holidays, the site is operated every day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. “At this point, we think we can manage (the case testing) and if necessary we can reopen the site (Jasper), but we believe it will be okay,” she said.
While Memorial Hospital will test symptomatic patients who fall into the testing guidelines mandated by the CDC, the OptumServe Testing site at the Jasper Armory will test patients as well as close contacts to those patients, according to Shawn Werner, Dubois County Health Department.
Werner also explained that in the recent cases found at Farbest and Dubois County Community Corrections, the ISDH had formed a strike team to respond to Dubois County. The teams consist of an epidemiologist, a supervisor, infection control experts and nurses who respond to the cluster of cases. According to Werner, they handle all the testing and data processing as well as help with the containment of the infection.
“It gives the scientific base method to separate the positive from the negatives at the time of the test,” Werner explained adding that in this case many of those individuals were asymptomatic. “They would have continued to spread the virus if they had not been removed from the facility.”
The strike team then works to educate the positive cases on how to mitigate the spread of the disease (e.g. temperature screening, social distancing, good hygiene and mask usage). “Luckily, both of these facilities already had measures in place,” Werner said.
Once the contacts with those positives are identified, they are contacted and they are quarantined for 14 days, according to Werner.
Although there has been a recent increase in cases in Dubois County, the health department is still moving forward with the next step in the phased reopening outlined by Gov. Eric Holcomb. The third stage of that plan goes into effect Friday.
“The increase in numbers that we have had has not given us reason to hold back,” said Dubois County Health Officer Dr. Ted Waflert. “We feel like the virus is being contained by all the moves following the guidance of the State Department of Health.”
He added that the reason they would step back on the phased reopening is if the healthcare system were to start being overwhelmed by the cases. “At this time our healthcare system is doing well,” he said.
Dr. Waflert urged residents to continue to practice the guidelines set out by the CDC: wear a cloth face covering when in public; maintain social distancing; wash your hands frequently; stay home if you are feeling ill.
“Our knowledge of the virus is limited, but there is evidence that these guidelines help reduce the spread,” Dr. Waflert said.
He added that residents should also reach out to friends, neighbors, and family members to ensure they are okay.
I also want to thank all of our county residents who are doing their part to help defeat this virus and win this war,” he said.
While this information is both informative and good news, overall – esp the nursing home and the hospitalization situation – it begs some questions: Why didn’t/couldn’t the health dept come out more with this information along the way – on more of a regular basis – if not daily like the positive counts then maybe weekly – ??? This can go far in the interest of public information and awareness in both calming and reducing the public’s anxiety about what is happening here. They have been most reluctant to share hardly anything more than numbers, only to release robotic statements of hard-headed, inflexible privacy policy, repetitive precautions, mitigations, etc. And if they really couldn’t/can’t do it, how/why are they doing it now, when it could have better benefited the public interest more in real time – ?
Also, how was it that the ISDH strike team came to DC – was it a request from the health dept or Farbest and/or county corrections – ? Reason being, seems they would have wanted to test other employees of other industry/factories here that likewise employ hundreds of people, given the one large infection we now know of. Was that considered or did they/the health dept reach out to ask/offer this to any others of industry for testing – ? While it may not have been as large an infection concentration as Farbest, can’t fathom that there would not be/have been others, elsewhere in these large indoor operations – and maybe of significant numbers – that would have been discovered and mitigated for the safety/benefit of all. That said, again, the press conference info/update is indeed good news.