TIMES UNION REPORTS – While Kosciusko County continues to be at the “orange” state advisory level for COVID-19, the city of Warsaw will change things up if that color becomes red – the worst of the four levels.
The county was at blue – the lowest level – in May.
The Warsaw School Board voted 5-1 Tuesday night to return to the mask mandate, beginning Friday. Tippecanoe Valley High School and the Burket Education Center reverted to virtual instruction Tuesday but the schools will return to in-person instruction on Monday.
During Wednesday’s COVID-19 press conference, Mayor Joe Thallemer said, “I did want to talk a little bit about what the city is doing as far as mitigation protocols. Essentially, we’re looking at, primarily, concerns with in-door gatherings in our city buildings. We will be encouraging masking at all city facilities and providing masks at the entrances to the buildings.”
He said they will continue to maintain social distancing. City Hall was to be “retooled” Wednesday morning to spread seats out for public meetings. Barrier shields will be reinstalled and hand sanitizer made available.
“Indoor activities and meetings will be limited to 10 people in-person in city buildings. We are going to try to hold all those meetings here in Council Chambers where we can spread out,” he said.
If the county is designated a “red advisory level,” Thallemer said all public meetings will go to a virtual format. The red advisory level will also trigger all city internal meetings of more than 10 participants to go to a virtual format.
“Emergency responders are continuing their COVID protocols when they interface with the public on emergency runs. I won’t go into details on those, but those are obviously continuing,” he said.
The Parks and Recreation Department is trying to control and minimize concerns with large indoor gatherings. Because of that, the 2021 Daddy’s Sweetheart Dance was postponed to February.
“When feasible, larger events will pivot to an outdoor format,” he said. As an example, the 2021 Light Up the Night Christmas event’s indoor events will be limited to 20 participants with masking encouraged. The majority of programming for the event will be held outdoors.
A number of events are scheduled for this weekend, including the John Dillinger Raid at the Old Jail Museum; the 9/11 ceremony and parade in front of the Center Lake Pavilion; and the Kettleheads Homebrew Fest and Kosciusko Chamber’s Taste of Kosciusko downtown Warsaw, all Saturday.
Thallemer said organizers are working with the Kosciusko County Health Department to maintain safety protocols. With them being outdoor events, there’s not as much concern as if they were indoor events.
“But we’re allowing the Health Department to work with the organizations to make the final call,” he said.
The Homebrew Fest is under a tent. Thallemer said its organizers are working with the Health Department to make sure safety protocols are established for that. The Health Department is following state guidelines as advisory levels change.
County Commissioner Cary Groninger said the county isn’t changing a whole lot. The county never took its barriers, hand sanitizer, etc. down. The county doesn’t have any large events planned at this point.
“I know we’re making sure we’ve got the resources for the County Health Department,” he said.
Earlier in the press conference, Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington said the county continues to see a significant surge of “Delta-sprung cases of COVID in our county. We’re close to 11,000 cases since over a year ago. Another 300 cases, at least, since last week.”
The county is at 131 deaths, up from 128 a week ago.
“We remain at an orange advisory per the Indiana Department of Health’s color-coded county-by-county advisory. We were orange a week ago. We were blue back in May, which is more favorable,” Remington said. “Our positivity, which is one of the things that metric follows closely, is up to 12.5%. At our worst, in November, we were 26%. We were 7.8% a week ago. A significant positivity. We really haven’t seen that positivity until winter of last year, mid-January and mid-November.”
He said Kosciusko is averaging 44 new cases a day. At its worst in November, that average was 134. A week ago, the average was 35.
“So that’s up; 318 weekly cases per 100,000, another metric the state watches closely, we were 217 a week ago,” Remington said.
As for Indiana hospitalizations, they’re up another “300 or so from a week ago.” Still down about 1,000 from where the state was in December, which was the peak of hospitalizations.
As for vaccination statistics, Remington said 6.3 million doses have been given across the state of Indiana; 3.1 million Hoosiers have been fully immunized.
In Kosciusko County, he said there’s been about 300 new people fully immunized in the past week, putting the county at 42% of those eligible to be vaccinated (12 and older) now fully immunized.
As for “emerging topics,” Remington said the hot topic is Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s executive order from last week and the Indiana Department of Health’s guidance that followed.
“It doesn’t take the foot off the gas with expectations of communicable disease controls (in relation) to COVID, that’s clear,” he said. “It does offer a bit of an evidence-based olive branch to schools to be fully masked.”
He referenced a large study by Duke University that resulted in a message of “you wear a mask, you stay in school.”
Remington said he sent out a strong letter of support Tuesday as the county public health officer to the school superintendents reflecting his full support of Holcomb’s executive order and the ISDH’s guidance.
The County Health Department continues to offer COVID immunization, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the mornings. Patients may choose which vaccine they want.
To get a COVID-19 vaccination, people can still go to ourshot.in.gov to schedule one; call 211; or go to their pharmacy.
Again referencing Holcomb’s executive order and the Health Department’s position, Remington said when cases were waning in June, he put out a position paper, which was sent to the schools, saying the Health Department supported in-class learning.
“And we largely will pivot from the State Department of Health’s guidance, but if sense it is departing from our community and its temperament and its epidemiology … then we would be willing to depart from state’s guidance,” Remington said. “Historically, all through this pandemic, administratively it has served us well to be joined at the hip with state Department of Health guidance through this pandemic.”
He said it was clear that Kosciusko County wasn’t he only county thinking like that. In short order, the SDH made it very clear there were ongoing expectations regarding reporting, quarantining and testing.
Cases were quiet in June. Come late July and August, the COVID-19 cases started increasing.
“So this point forward, our Health Department will go back to that administrative motif that served us well through the heat of the battle for the previous 18 months. And that is we’ll be joined at the hip closely with emerging State Department of Health guidance,” he said.
