HANCOCK COUNTY — Leaders, businesses and residents in the county are preparing to decide how to go about the COVID-19 pandemic as the state loosens the hold it has had on guidance over much of the past year.
For months, the amount of people who could gather in one place has been based on recommendations associated with a color on a map updated by the state every week. Soon that determination will be up to officials in those counties.
Since last summer, although it didn’t come with any penalties, masks have been mandated in the state. Soon it will be merely advised.
By the time the changes go into effect, vaccine eligibility to Hoosiers as young as 16 will be well underway.
The current statewide mask mandate changes to an advisory on April 6, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced earlier this week. Masks will still be required in all state facilities, all vaccination and COVID-19 testing sites, and schools, however.
Holcomb signed his executive order regarding face coverings in July 2020. While dubbed a mandate, it didn’t call for violators to be penalized, and officials emphasized enforcing it through education.
The governor also announced that the state’s current rules on capacity limits for social gatherings and events will continue through April 5, after which local officials will be able to decide for their own communities.
Currently, capacity limits are driven by counties’ COVID-19 advisory level colors representing community spread, which the Indiana State Department of Health updates weekly. On Wednesday, Hancock County’s color changed from blue, the least severe, to yellow, the second least severe. An executive order recommends gatherings in yellow counties not exceed 100 people, but can be greater as long as it doesn’t exceed 50% of a facility’s capacity. For gatherings that exceed recommendations, a safety plan must be submitted to the local health department.
Indiana plans to open COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to those age 16 and older on Wednesday, March 31. Recipients 16 and 17 will need permission from a parent or guardian and will only be able to receive the vaccine made by Pfizer, as it’s the only one currently authorized in the U.S. to be administered to people as young as 16.
“It’s a sign that we really do appear to be coming to the end of the pandemic,” said Steve Long, president and CEO of Hancock Health and Hancock Regional Hospital, of the upcoming developments. “That’s a hopeful sign.”
He feels the state changing the mask mandate is slightly premature, however.
“The true answer to this is herd immunity,” Long said, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines as a “situation in which a sufficient proportion of a population is immune to an infectious disease to make its spread from person to person unlikely.”
Vaccinations can help accomplish that, he said, adding he welcomes next week’s planned expansion.
But he wishes the state would have maintained its stance on masks for about another eight weeks longer than it’s planning.
“That would’ve made me more comfortable,” he said.
Dr. Kristina Box, Indiana state health commissioner, said during a media briefing Wednesday that by the time the mask mandate is lifted, it will have been five weeks since Indiana residents age 50 and older have been eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.
“Our priority has always been to protect those most likely to become severely ill or die from COVID, and age is the highest contributing factor,” Box said. “The mandatory wearing of masks has protected those who are most vulnerable while allowing them ample time to be vaccinated.”
Long thinks some of the most helpful requirements for guidelines such as masks come from businesses, like the big national companies that have policies on face coverings. Smaller businesses might be tempted to not require them anymore when the state mandate goes away, he added.
He trusts that local officials will make the right decisions on capacity restrictions.
“I have perfect confidence in both the sanity and wisdom of our local leaders, and it’s because we all work together very, very well,” he said. “I think, in many ways, those decisions are better made at the local level than at the state level.”
Dr. Gary Sharp, Hancock County Health officer, was both cautious and optimistic toward Holcomb’s news.
“I have a little bit of concern, with spring break coming to an end, that we may see a surge, but we do have a little time before April 6 to adjust to that,” Sharp said.
The county health department will rely on CDC guidelines to influence its guidance moving forward, he continued.
“We are trying to coordinate somewhat with other counties so things won’t be quite so confusing,” he said.
He thinks businesses may continue requiring masks despite the mandate softening to an advisory because it’s something many of their customers will want.
“I think it will be left up to individual small businesses and I think they realize that when they open things up to people not wearing masks, that this may also cut down on their business, because of people who are concerned about being in a small environment with people not wearing masks,” Sharp said.
Marc Huber, a Hancock County commissioner, welcomes the upcoming increase in local control over capacity restrictions. Last year, he and commissioner John Jessup along with former commissioner Brad Armstrong sent Holcomb a letter objecting to his executive order on face coverings, arguing such a decision should be made on a county-by-county basis.
“It’ll be nice that we actually have a say in how the county’s ran,” Huber said.
He expects the county’s approach to its new authority will be a topic of discussion at the next commissioners meeting on Tuesday, March 30, and he anticipates the county health department to be one of the voices weighing in on officials’ determinations.
“I’m sure after our meeting next week there’ll probably be some more knowledge or ideas,” he said. “Right now it’s just pretty early. I don’t think anybody wants to jump the gun on anything. We want to have some good discussion on it so we don’t start getting things out that aren’t planned. We want to come up with a sound plan and go with it.”
Influx of injections
Tim Livesay, director of pharmacy for Hancock Regional Hospital, said he was a little surprised when he learned COVID-19 vaccine eligibility would be dropping from 40 and up to 16 and up, but added he doesn’t think it’s a bad thing.
Because recipients will continue to have to sign up through the state’s scheduling website, he doesn’t anticipate the hospital’s vaccine clinic needing to make any adjustments to accommodate the expanded eligibility.
“It’ll be business as usual,” Livesay said. “It’s really hard to predict the number of people that will sign up. Right now we are booked out I think 11, 12 days, so we still have plenty of appointments after that time period.”
Once eligibility opens, recipients may find themselves waiting longer than recipients have up to now, Box said during this week’s media briefing, estimating it could span as long as six weeks.
“That is why we have gotten our most vulnerable populations, our older population and our co-morbidities in first so that we know if we are waiting a little bit longer, that that will be alright,” she said.
The state is confident in lowering eligibility all the way down to 16, Box said, because officials have been told Indiana will have enough vaccine for every resident who’s able to get one by May.
“So our plan is to make sure that we are ready and open and that individuals that want to get vaccinated have the ability to sign up for that,” she said.
Community comments
Greenfield resident Mike Nye said he’s looking forward to the changes coming to the state as he headed out of Jack’s Donuts Thursday morning.
“I’m all for it,” he said. “I just want to get life back to normal. I think the vaccine’s obviously working. The more people that get that, the better.”
He supports switching the mask mandate to an advisory and said he won’t wear one unless it’s required after the change occurs.
Kelley Holden, owner of Cynthia’s Hallmark in Greenfield and other Hallmark stores throughout the region, plans to maintain the status quo at her locations, at least for now.
“We’re still going to require associates to wear masks till more people get vaccinated,” she said.
Stores will continue to ask customers to wear masks and provide masks for customers but it will remain the customer’s choice, she added.
“We’ve never been like the mask police here,” Holden continued, adding customers have been good about wearing them.
She plans to keep plenty of hand sanitizer around and maintain thorough cleaning and disinfection practices as well.
Holden said she also thinks increasing local control amid the pandemic makes sense, as every county’s situation can be different.
Charlotte Solorzano, who works at Green Meadows Laundry in Greenfield, said she thinks the state easing its stance on masks will take some stress away from businesses that have been enforcing it.
Scheduled to get her first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, Solorzano said she plans to continue wearing her mask, at least for a little while, because she takes care of her elderly parents and a young daughter with health issues.
“I’m still going to be a little leery,” she said.
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Gov. Eric Holcomb’s announcement this week that COVID-19 restrictions would be eased comes after more than 50 executive orders he put in place over the past year to thwart spread of the novel coronavirus. Here is a summary of some of those key actions:
Order 20-02, March 6, 2020: Holcomb declares a public health emergency. The emergency will be extended every month after this.
Order 20-04, March 16: Among other limits in a wide-ranging action, restaurants are ordered to close to in-person patrons, and hospitals are told to limit elective and non-urgent medical procedures.
Order 20-05, March 19: Among other measures in an order directed at multiple state agencies, Holcomb orders schools shuttered through May 1 and cancels state-mandated assessments for the school year. The school closures ultimately will be extended.
Order 20-08, March 23: Stay-home order issued; “essential” businesses identified; best-practices guidelines issued, including enforcing social distancing. The stay-home order ultimately will be extended.
Order 20-13, March 30: The state health commissioner is directed to be prepared to open temporary medical facilities should hospitals in the state become overwhelmed. Retired medical professionals and students in health-related fields are given pathways to reinforce the ranks of health-care workers if it becomes necessary.
Order 20-24, April 24: Elective medical procedures may resume.
Order 20-26, May 1: Holcomb issues his Back on Track plan, an order that establishes five stages of re-opening the state based on data compiled by the state health department.
Order 20-28, May 21: Based on improvements in data, the state is directed to proceed to Stage 3 of the reopening plan, easing some restrictions on gatherings.
Order 20-32: June 11: State may proceed to Stage 4 of the reopening plan.
Order 20-35: July 1: Reopening plan slows slightly as Holcomb creates an interim stage: 4.5. It will be continued three more times.
Order 20-37: July 24: Holcomb issues a mandate to wear face coverings “inside a business, public building or other indoor place open to the public.”
Order 20-43: Sept. 24: Holcomb orders state to proceed to Stage 5 of his reopening plan, more than two months later than first planned. The order heralds a “new normal” and encourages Hoosiers to continue following CDC guidelines for limiting spread of the virus. The order also establishes the color-coded spread metric that’s still in use.
Order 20-48: Nov. 13: As case count begins to rise alarmingly, Holcomb rescinds Stage 5 as a statewide condition and moves toward a county-based system of assessments that stresses the color-coded spread metric established weeks earlier. A long list of guidelines for businesses and individuals is included that stresses mask-wearing, good hygiene and distancing. This order has been extended four time since then.
Order 21-05: Feb. 25, 2021: The public health emergency is extended for the 12th time.
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COVID-19 vaccinations in Indiana are currently available to:
- Those age 40 and older
- Health-care workers
- First-responders
- Educators and school support staff
- Specific groups of patients at highest risk of severe illness from COVID-19 identified by their health care providers
- Veterans who receive care at certain Veterans Affairs hospitals
For more information on eligibility, to sign up for a vaccine at state-supplied clinics and to access links to sign up at private pharmacies, visit ourshot.in.gov. Assistance for signing up at state-supplied sites is also available by calling 211.
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COVID-19 data through early Friday, March 26
Hancock County
- 83 new tests administered
- 15 new cases
- 4.7% seven-day (March 13-19) positivity rate all tests, 9.8% cumulative rate
- 0 new deaths
- 91,623 total tests administered
- 39,903 individuals tested
- 7,647 total cases
- 8.7% seven-day (March 13-19) positivity rate unique individuals, 19.2% cumulative rate
- 135 total deaths
- 14,960 fully vaccinated
- 23,516 first vaccine doses administered
Indiana
- 15,673 new tests administered (Aug. 25, 2020-March 25, 2021), 2,273 new individuals tested
- 1,136 new cases (March 23-March 25)
- 3.4% seven-day (March 13-19) positivity rate all tests, 9.3% cumulative rate
- 20 new deaths (Jan. 19-March 24)
- 8,730,919 total tests administered
- 3,227,019 total individuals tested
- 682,099 total cases
- 9.1% seven-day (March 13-19) positivity rate unique individuals, 21.1% cumulative rate
- 12,596 total deaths
- 60.8% ICU beds in use – non-COVID
- 5% ICU beds in use – COVID
- 34.2% ICU beds available
- 16.8% ventilators in use – non-COVID
- 1.7% ventilators in use – COVID
- 81.5% ventilators available
- Hospital census: 637 total COVID-19 patients (418 confirmed, 219 under investigation)
- 1,042,768 fully vaccinated
- 1,561,705 first vaccine doses administered
Source: Indiana State Department of Health
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