LAGRANGE — LaGrange County has been sitting at level red on the Indiana State Department of Health’s county metrics map for several weeks.
One of the data points driving the high numbers is the positivity rate. On Thursday, the unique individual cumulative rate was 28.8% and the seven-day unique individual testing was 39.1%. LaGrange County has 4,417.6 per 100,000 people testing positive for the virus. It also has 39 people who have died from the virus.
“We have a lot of people who do not get tested when they are sick,” LaGrange County Health Officer Dr. Tony Pechin said Thursday. “And we’re not doing much screening at all. So, when you don’t do much screening, you’ll have a higher positivity rate.”
He said that like the rest of Indiana, LaGrange County is experiencing a serious COVID outbreak.
“The main treatment, short of the vaccine, which thank goodness is coming very soon, is wearing masks, social distancing and not gathering in confined spaces. Winter has created that special complication.
“A lot of the activities people normally do in the colder times, they get together indoors — and that’s what’s spreading this.”
Another type of coronavirus, the common cold, is also spread more in the winter, he pointed out, and then there is the flu. But taking precautions for COVID can help lower the the flu rate as well.
“We’re not seeing much flu right now,” he said. “It’s a two-for-one sale. If we mask, social distance and avoid those congregations, we’re going to avoid getting the flu as well. You kill two birds with one stone.
“The worse thing would be is we had a bad flu epidemic along with COVID,” the health officer said. “Hopefully, people, especially high-risk people, are being smart and getting their flu vaccines.”
One of the reasons LaGrange County has low testing numbers is that there is only one testing site, and that is in LaGrange. Residents were being sent to neighboring counties for testing. Also, the hospital is only testing sick people. But now, doctor’s offices are getting testing kits, so tests will be more readily available to people, Pechin said.
As for the county’s COVID mitigation ordinance, which includes a mask order and the possibility of fines for noncompliance, Pechin said there is resistance to it as there is elsewhere.
People who do not want to wear masks “say it violates their rights and all these other things,” Pechin said. “Most of it’s gibberish. If people don’t complain about putting their shoes on before they go into a restaurant, you know, it’s the same logic. Wear a mask. It’s not that hard. I always tell people that the Good Samaritan would wear a mask. Because that’s really what we’re doing. We’re wearing masks so we protect ourselves and others. If we’d all do that, our cases would go down, no doubt about it.
“But, you know, the social media has opened up a Pandora’s box of opinions and pseudoscience and false claims and false interpretations of data, which confuses people who are not health literate. And that’s what’s going on.”
The staff at the LaGrange County Health Department also post on the department’s Facebook page which businesses are doing well and adhering to the orders and those that are not. Pechin said he considers that an education thing.
“We’re sharing the safe places to go and the unsafe places not to go,” he said, adding that a number of people who are concerned about the virus follow the health department’s Facebook page.
Education is something the health department staff has been working with businesses on concerning state and local health orders.
“The businesses have been very open,” Pechin said. “We have not had any confrontations with businesses. Businesses lament the fact that when they try to implement the guidelines in the governor’s order, the people fight it and refuse to wear masks when they come in. They feel very conflicted on how aggressive to be with controlling these people.
“You can just imagine that a place that has 100 people in it, and all of a sudden 10 of them take off their masks — I mean, who’s going to go around and fight them all? It’s that kind of thing.”
Pechin said that the people health officials have spoken with have been working very hard to try to encourage use of masks.
“It’s a difficult situation for some of them,” he said. “I know it’s emotionally difficult, everybody’s really tired of this thing. It’s very stressful. If we think about helping one another — wear a mask to help one another, you help keep somebody from getting sick, it really does make a difference.”
So far, the health department has not issued any fines to businesses.
Pechin is also looking for clarification on if event and entertainment venues will be capped at 25 without exception from the county health department. The order clearly caps social events, including wedding receptions, parties and the like, and the health department cannot make any changes to that number.
“The way I read the order, it limits all events in a red county to 25 people, effective Dec. 13 (this Sunday),” he stated in a follow up email. “We will be educating our venues on this order.”
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