By Wayne Gates
The Brown County Administration Building has been shut down until December 7 due to COVID concerns.
A combination of personal exposure and quarantining requirements in multiple offices led to the decision.
“We need to have the general public bear with us for a week,” said Brown County Commission President Barry Woodruff. “We owe the public as much safety and security as possible when they come to our building.”
The offices affected include the commissioners, board of elections, auditor, recorder and treasurer.
Woodruff said that the sharp increase in COVID cases in Brown County is causing him and other officials great concern.
“I belive that this is a very serious problem. In our community there are some people that are afraid to leave the house because they are vulnerable,” Woodruff said.
He added that the county can rely on federal aid to take care of salaries and other expenses while the building is closed.
“We can use CARES money to cover situations like this. Those salary dollars and other expenses can be paid for with CARES money rather than money from the county general fund.”
Woodruff also said that federal help can be used to keep the workflow going while the building is closed.
“We are also using CARES money to secure some laptops so more people can work from home while they are quarantining.”
Woodruff said that he does not intend to keep closing the county administration building if the pandemic continues, but the commissioners will use this time to come up with a plan for future quarantine needs.
“We want to use this as a teaching and learning experience for when we might have a similar issue in the future. It’s always better to have some experience and a plan,” he said.
Meanwhile, the latest county COVID numbers show Brown County in red status.
321 new cases in the past two weeks have been reported in the county, which is more cases in two weeks than were reported from March through September. There have been 1242 cases documented locally since March, with 715 of those coming in the month of November. That’s more than triple the October number of 218. Of those 1242 cases reported so far, 1026 have recovered, with 192 currently ill at home and 18 in the hospital. Six deaths have been reported since March.
Cumulative cases in local school districts include three cases from the Brown County Educational Service Center, nine students and four staff members at Eastern, seven students and 12 staff members in Fayetteville, three students in Georgetown, one student and six staff members in Ripley, one student at Southern Hills and 14 students and 11 staff members at Western Brown.
In local long term care facilities, cumulative numbers are eight residents and eight staff members at Locust Ridge, nine residents and 14 staff members at Ohio Valley Manor, six residents and 15 staff members at the Ohio Veterans Home and 40 residents and 25 staff members at Villa Georgetown.
Statewide, 421,063 cases have been reported since March, with 26,864 hospitalizations, 4682 ICU admissions and 6429 deaths.
Ohio’s COVID-19 hospitalizations have hit an all-time high at 5,060 people hospitalized with the coronavirus across Ohio as compared to just under 1,700 COVID-19 patients on November 1.
According to the office of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, of Ohio’s currently hospitalized COVID-19 patients, there are 1,180 individuals in intensive care units and 682 people are on ventilators.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, Dec. 1, Dr. Andy Thomas, Chief Clinical Officer at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, said that one-third of ICU patients across Ohio have COVID and one-third of individuals on ventilators have COVID.
“COVID patients are going to start crowding out other people who need that level of care as these numbers continue to rise,” said Dr. Thomas. “The reality is that hospitals are making difficult decisions about delaying care. It may be non-urgent care, but it’s care that may cause someone to go to the ICU after surgery. A lot of hospitals are delaying those surgeries because they can’t afford their ICUs to be overtaxed.”
Dr. Thomas reported that rural areas are being hit particularly hard right now, and several hospitals are beginning to voice concerns about their ability to manage such a high number of intensive care patients. As the total number of COVID patients grows, smaller community hospitals will be unable to expand their intensive care capacity.
For individuals who traveled over Thanksgiving, Dr. Thomas urged them to quarantine upon return to Ohio to break any possible chain of transmission.