Brown County’s six-week stay among counties in the bottom tier of COVID spread is over.
On April 14, the Indiana State Department of Health moved Brown County to yellow level, up from blue, because of increased test positivity rates and increased cases over the past seven days.
New rules are now in place by order of Brown County Health Officer Dr. Norman Oestrike.
At yellow:
<ul>
<li>Business capacity is limited to 75 percent of normal.</li>
<li>Restaurants are restricted to six-foot separation of tables.</li>
<li>Customers inside any business must be masked and signs posted on the door.</li>
<li>Social distancing is required inside businesses.</li>
<li>All staff in businesses must be masked and staff must be screened before shifts.</li>
<li>High-touch surfaces should be cleaned hourly at a minimum.</li>
<li>Customers are to be masked unless seated in food/restaurant establishments.</li>
<li>Bar areas are to maintain six-foot separation among unrelated parties.</li>
<li>No buffets; cafeteria line service only. No self-service of food, but drink stations are OK.</li>
<li>A safety plan will be required for events over 100 people and will need health department approval. Large events with no plan are limited to 100 people including staff and volunteers. (This limit does not apply to weddings, funerals or churches.)</li>
</ul>
Yellow-level restrictions will be in place until April 28. At that time, restrictions could be increased or decreased depending on what color Brown County is on the ISDH’s map.
If our color level rises, other restrictions will be put in place. (See box with this story.)
Even though the previous statewide mask mandate was dropped to an advisory on April 6, Gov. Eric Holcomb’s order 21-09 put responsibility on local health departments to determine local COVID restrictions, which can be more strict than the state’s.
Indiana is still under a public health emergency until at least April 30.
Mask requirements are still in place in all government buildings in Brown County, which includes schools.
<strong>Stats and shots</strong>
The week of April 13-19, Brown County’s COVID-19 case count increased by 11, to 1,001. In the past two weeks, we’ve gained 28 new cases. Deaths remained at 40.
About 34 percent of the county’s population had been at least partially vaccinated as of Friday.
On April 13, the Indiana State Department of Health temporarily pulled the one-shot Johnson &amp; Johnson vaccine from use out of an abundance of caution because of rare instances of major blood clots occurring in a total of six women who’d received it across the country, out of more than 6.8 million shots given.
The Brown County Music Center does not give the Johnson & Johnson vaccine; it only has the two-dose Moderna vaccine, so local appointments were not affected by this change.
<strong>What about school?</strong>
Brown County Schools administration was talking with the health department last week to understand how the yellow-level restrictions will affect upcoming end-of-year events, like graduation. As it stands now, health department approval is required for events with more than 100 people attending.
The initial plan for graduation was to have a ticketed in-person event at the Larry C. Banks Memorial Gymnasium. Principal Matt Stark and his team there are analyzing the gymnasium space to get a better sense of how many tickets could be given to each family.
At the April 15 school board meeting, Stark said the high school was now looking at a possible outdoor graduation ceremony depending on where the county is at with COVID-19 cases.
There is also supposed to be an awards program on May 3 in the gymnasium that could also be affected by the yellow-level restrictions. “That is also suspect at this point until we can find out more information from the health department,” Stark said.
Even if the county returns to the blue level soon, all activities would be restricted under the yellow level for two weeks.
An evening graduation is scheduled for May 28.
“The hope is that we will be back to blue and we can kind of have some of these events happening in a way that we think is reasonable, but also responsible,” Superintendent Laura Hammack said.
Hammack said the county moving back to yellow was a “sincere wake-up call” for the county, schools and community overall.
“We were back in blue for so long, I think what ended up happening — there is no question we are all human — you begin to feel a little bit more like normalcy,” she said.
The school district was not initially aware that new yellow restrictions had been put in place by the health department until school corporation nurse Holly Gordon saw a post on social media.
“It just would have been nice for them, since we are a pretty large institution with a large impact on a lot of people, that they would have given you or Holly a heads up going, ‘Hey, we’re going to have to change. It’s coming out,’” board President Carol Bowden said.
Hammack said that the district should know something about graduation and other plans soon so that parents can prepare for those events.
“It was hard to see yellow, but it is where we are. If we have proven anything over the last year, it’s that we can be responsive to change, and we will make the best of whatever we’re experiencing,” Hammack said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="If our color status rises" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
If Brown County goes to orange or red on the Indiana State Department of Health’s COVID spread map, these higher levels of restrictions will be put into place countywide:
<strong>At orange:</strong>
<ul>
<li>Same restrictions as yellow with others added or modified below:</li>
<li>Customers and staff in any business must be masked.</li>
<li>Business capacity to be 50 percent of normal.</li>
<li>Bar areas closed for stand-up drinks. All patrons to be seated at tables.</li>
<li>Health department plan and approval required for events over 50 people. Large events without a plan are limited to 50 people.</li>
</ul>
<strong>At red:</strong>
<ul>
<li>Same restrictions as orange with others added or modified below:</li>
<li>All customers and staff in any business must be masked.</li>
<li>Business capacity to be 25 percent of normal.</li>
<li>Bar areas closed; drinks will only be provided for staff to disperse to patrons. No self-service at the bar.</li>
<li>Take-out and curbside delivery encouraged.</li>
<li>Health department plan and approval required for any event. No events over 25 people.</li>
</ul>
Anyone with questions can call the health department at 812-988-2255.
