Help save a life; start a journal

SUBMITTED PHOTO

The Ripley County Health Department continues the fight against COVID-19. There are many moving parts, and one of them is having people know where they’ve been in the past couple weeks or more, and who they have been with.

“Keep a journal,” suggests Dr. David Welsh, Ripley County health officer. That might seem daunting to someone who doesn’t like to write, but it could be vital at this time. Jot down what stores, pharmacies, people you are around on a daily basis. Then if you come down with the virus, health officials can take a look at where you have been and perhaps find that needle in the stack that will keep many others from being infected. It’s called contract tracing.

“It’s like detective work, searching for where an infected person has been,” noted Holley Rose, director of the Ripley County Health Department. “And it is critical to other residents in the county.” It could save more lives if they knew where a cluster of the virus could be lurking.

As the Governor issues a revised Stay At Home order that now lasts through May 1, it is still vital that people keep doing what they have been doing. As part of the revision, Governor Holcomb says that hospitals will now be able to conduct medically necessary procedures, such as those determining cancer diagnosis and cardiac issues, respiratory procedures, and procedures to reduce significant pain or symptoms making quality of life unacceptable.
Nurseries and garden centers can now be open for business as long as they limit the number of customers in their facility at any given time to achieve the Centers for Disease Control’s required social distancing, limit their hours of operation and consider implementing separate operating hours for the elderly and other vulnerable customers and comply with social distancing, etc.

Pet grooming at a salon, store or mobile unit is now permitted under the new revised order.

The Governor has praised Hoosiers for their compliance and says he believes that is what has helped flatten the curve in the state. He, along with a host of others, is working toward getting the state opened back up, but what that looks like at the end of the day may not be what it looked like before COVID-19 was a commonly used word in our vocabulary.

Governor Holcomb also praised the medical teams, saying the reason the state is able to open up a bit is because of “our state’s world-class health networks, which have collaborated to provide the resources we need to fight this pandemic.” He noted there are 16,705 licensed physicians and over 152,000 licensed nurses in the state, plus other critical medical workers too numerous to count.

As of April 20, 11,686 people have tested positive and 569 people have died from the disease in Indiana. There are now positive tests in all 92 counties in the state. However, that number changes by the day, sometimes the hour.
“I want to thank Hoosiers in every corner of our state who have stayed socially-distanced and hunkered down. Lives are being saved, and we’re slowing the spread. Continuing the course at this time is essential to flattening the curve while we also prepare to safely reopen Indiana for business.”