<strong>Last day of school year coming up next week</strong>

The last day of the school year for Brown County Schools students will be Tuesday, May 25.

High school graduation will occur on Friday evening, May 28. A limited number of tickets will be offered to graduates’ families. See next week’s paper for more information about graduation and to read biographies of the summa cum laude graduates of the Class of 2021.

<strong>Local COVID information changing, still unclear</strong>

If you are fully vaccinated — two weeks past your last COVID shot — you don’t need to wear a mask or distance yourself from other people, the Centers for Disease Control announced on May 13. However, masks may still be required in some crowded indoor settings and where posted by businesses.

In addition, Brown County is now under “blue” restrictions and under a “blue” advisory level as of May 12, according to the Indiana State Department of Health’s color-coded county map. That’s not what local health officials expected, because after a county drops down to blue — which Brown County did on May 5 — a county is supposed to stay at yellow-level restrictions for two weeks. But if the ISDH says that Brown County is at blue, they’re going to go with it, said Susan Armstrong, the county’s emergency management agency director, on May 14.

Another unexpected change came from the state level last week. On May 10, the Indiana General Assembly voted to overturn Gov. Eric Holcomb’s veto of SB 5. The bill says that local health departments cannot issue health orders if they aren’t approved by local governing bodies. The Indianapolis City-County Council quickly moved to affirm their county health office’s orders so that requirements such as masks and gathering limits remained in place. On May 14, after the CDC issued its new mask guidance, Monroe County, which includes Bloomington, rescinded its health orders.

The Brown County Commissioners have not yet weighed in on what SB 5 means for Brown County. On April 14, Brown County Health Officer Dr. Norman Oestrike put in place a series of restrictions if the county is under yellow, orange or red status. Without the commissioners or the town council voting on those, it’s unclear if they will apply if the county goes back up to yellow, red or orange. But right now, with the county being on blue, it’s a moot point.

Between Tuesday, May 11 and Monday, May 17, Brown County picked up five new COVID cases and zero new deaths. Brown County’s percentage of at least partially vaccinated residents was about 38.5 percent as of Friday.

Last week, Indiana authorized the use of the Pfizer vaccine to children as young as 12. On May 14, the Brown County Health Department advertised four doses available at the clinic at the Brown County Music Center that day. Clinic staff didn’t know when more doses might be available here. The clinic usually offers the Moderna vaccine, which is only approved for adult use.

Vaccine sites statewide and the types of shots they offer can be viewed at ourshot.in.gov.