COVID-19 claimed the life of a second Brown County resident last week.
The 88-year-old man died on Aug. 10. He had been undergoing cancer treatment.
It is this newspaper’s policy to not report the names of COVID-19 victims unless the family gives permission to do so. This man’s wife had confirmed the death from COVID on social media, but not directly to the newspaper by the deadline for this story.
Brown County had one recorded death from COVID until last week. Martin Travelstead, 81, died on April 5. His wife, Shirley, survived the virus.
Brown County’s confirmed positive cases have continued to rise by an average of one a day since a free testing site opened at the Brown County Music Center on July 16.
Brown County Public Health Preparedness Coordinator Corey Frost said that more testing has found more confirmed virus cases, but there is also “some evidence of community spread,” or people getting infected without knowing how or where they became infected.
The free testing site closed on Aug. 8 — after originally being scheduled to close on July 25 — because “the mission ended,” Frost said, but plans are in the works to try to get another testing site that’s open to anyone, without a doctor’s order or clinic membership, through the rest of the year. If grant money comes through, that site would be operated by the county health department instead of the state, Frost told the Brown County Commissioners at their Aug. 5 meeting.
There are no current plans for the health department to offer antibody testing here, he said. Some doctor’s offices do offer it.
About 1,450 people were tested for COVID during the 3 1/2-week period the free Brown County testing site was open, including some people from out of county. Frost said he didn’t have an exact number of out-of-county vs. in-county people tested, but he knew some were not from here because of their license plates.
Other COVID-19 testing sites are listed at coronavirus.in.gov.
Regardless of where someone is tested, test results are credited back to the county in which a person lives.
As of Aug. 14, Brown County had 76 confirmed positive cases of the virus.
Frost said he had no way of knowing how many of those are “recovered” and how many are “active” infections because he doesn’t have access to medical records. He also didn’t know how many were showing symptoms and how many were asymptomatic at the time they tested positive.
The Indiana State Department of Health’s information-gathering partner, the Regenstrief Institute, has been updating a statewide graph of COVID recoveries on its website, regenstrief.org/covid-dashboard. As of Aug. 14, that agency was reporting an estimate statewide recovery rate of 76 percent, with 20 percent of people who tested positive still in the “active” infectious stage and 4 percent deceased.
The Centers for Disease Control, via USAFacts.org, showed an infection rate for Brown County of 497 per 100,000, the 12th lowest of Indiana’s 92 counties.
More than 80 percent of Brown County Schools students returned to in-person instruction on Aug. 5. No students or staff have tested positive since then.
Since Gov. Eric Holcomb put in place new mandates on mask-wearing on July 27, the Brown County Health Department has been receiving calls about establishments not following the rules, “especially not requiring the employees to wear masks,” said Dr. Norman Oestrike, the county’s health officer.
“The mandate instructs us to educate the employer to the reasons these mandates should be followed,” he said.
“Sometimes, this is not effective. We are looking into injunctive relief through the court.”
Oestrike urged residents and visitors to follow virus safety procedures.
“The wearing of masks by employees and patrons, social distancing and proper sanitation procedures and hand washing reduces the spread of COVID-19 in our community. The health department PLEADS with all Brown County citizens, employers and visitors to follow the science and follow these procedures,” he said.
“Please protect yourselves and avoid any persons or businesses that do not protect you from this disease by following the safety procedures.”
