As Clinton County officials, both County and City, take preemptive measures in dealing with COVID-19, Coronavirus, residents of Clinton County have undergone testing for the pandemic virus.
“There have been residents from Clinton Co tested and results thus far have been negative,” said Clinton County Public Health Nurse Dana Longenecker of the Clinton County Health Department (CCHD). This was as of 5:54 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18, 2020.
However, additional testing was approved by the State of Indiana on Wednesday and those results are pending.
“There were tests authorized by the state today [Wednesday] and those results are pending,” said, Nurse Longenecker.
Preparations are ongoing in Clinton County should an outbreak occur locally.
During the Tuesday, March 17, 2020, County Commissioners meeting Rodney Wann, Administrator/Environmentalist with CCHD, provided an update of the steps the County has taken.
“As of today [Tuesday], or late yesterday afternoon [Monday], we had distributed from our inventory 1,095 masks to various County and City agencies … as well as a few of the health care facilities and nursing homes,” said Wann. “We have also distributed, as of yesterday [Monday], about 500 pairs of gloves that we also had on inventory already. Again, to supplement those agencies that will need those.”
CCHD has also made a request to the Strategic National Stockpile for additional items.
“We sent in an order [to] the Strategic National Stockpile that has been set-up out of the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]. We put in a request for the County as of yesterday [Monday] asking for an additional 2,000 more masks to be sent to this County as well as gloves, surgical gowns and additional items that are needed by health care. As well as about 4,000 swabs in the event Darrell [Sanders] and I and Dr. Tharp decide there is a need to do a drive-thru test clinic.”
Wann addressed the likelihood if drive-thru testing would be possible.
“So that is probably our next incident management situation. To determine whether we would be able to do those or not. That is still up in the air due to testing restrictions and limitations.”
The Emergency Operation Center (EOC) has been activated according to Wann. A component of the EOC is ESF-8, which is health and medical, and CCDH is taking part in the Center. “We are going to try and staff that as often as possible and not interrupt what operations that we have regularly going,” said Wann.
CCHD is working to establish a call center to allow the public to get answers to questions they may have.
“We are in the process of establishing a call center here in the county,” said Wann. “Because right now information is most valuable and right now the most varying element. So, we are working with several folks – including ACCS – to try and get a call bank set-up.”
“At that point, we will start staffing that regularly a few hours each day and a few hours each evening try to keep consistent information out there. I anticipate that being needed if we start doing drive-thru testing and, or 12-months from now or so – we, hopefully, have to start doing immunizations.”
Dr. Stephen Tharp, Clinton County Health Officer, also spoke to the Commissioners in regards to Commissioner Josh Uitts question about keeping the public and County employees safe when coming to the courthouse.
“It’s difficult to decide at what point we need to step-up to the next level,” said Dr. Tharp.
“We have not identified a case in the county. I don’t anticipate too many people from outside of the county to be gathering in official meetings and that sort of thing. But I think it is very important to be able to conduct business, to support our population in our county with what we need to do. So there is a balance and everybody has a different idea. The reality is that we should do the things that we can and keep in mind in taking care of ourselves as well.”
Commissioner Uitts addressed putting in place a plan to have those County employees that can work from home be able to do so.
Dr. Tharp added, “Clearly anything that can be done to limit the exposure is a good thing. We have to be flexible and recognize that there is a risk and also take the precautions that we can.”
