By: Rebecca Miller
The governor announced that personal service businesses may begin opening on May 15 and Williams County Health Commissioner James Watkins expressed his thoughts that this is able to happen because the people of Ohio have done such a great job with social distancing, wearing masks and hand washing.
He is hoping that as barbers, beauticians, tanning salons, and other small businesses as well as outdoor eating at restaurants begin to serve customers again, they will follow the safety measures that have been given to them by the state.
“It is important to understand,” Watkins said, “we will continue to have cases and with added testing it may look like we have more. We will have deaths caused by COVID-19, also.”
“We hear quite often that people are indicating that being rural has helped, historically though when we don’t have treatments or vaccines, we have seen diseases spread through communities, so we need to keep doing the safe practices – hand washing, mask in groups, etc.”
The governor has set May 21st as the date when restaurants and bars may allow dining inside at their establishments, of course with certain safety measures. Also, on Monday, May 11th he will announce about child care services. Next week Williams County will be able to provide resources to the nursing homes to enable them to do testing. He is very excited about that is hopeful that it will help them be able to provide better protection to “the most vulnerable.”
Watkins pointed out, “Someday we will get back to baseball, festivals and summer activities, but we are not there yet. We need everyone’s effort to make that happen.” He also said in answer to a question concerning whether the Fairs will be held this year, “There are discussions at the state level to figure out if they can hold the fairs and if so how could they do them safely?”
Nursing Director Rachel Aeschliman reported that as of May 7th, 2020 Williams County has had 43 total cases of COVID-19. The county is holding at four hospitalizations and one death. Thirty-one of the forty-three cases have been related to CCNO, and twelve are from the community. She said that this reaffirms that mild to moderate cases are most common, but there may still be some who need to be hospitalized.
Maggie Fisher from the Department of Aging shared that they are continuing to deliver meals to homes of seniors, working on fun activities to help with isolation, checking into a possible Pen pal program and have planned a Mothers’ Day activity for Monday, May 11th called Muffins for Mom. Unfortunately, they have had to postpone and probably cancel the 90 Plus Banquet.
Chasity Yoder of United Way announced that $32,600 has come in for the COVID relief fund. They are still working with other agencies to coordinate and are planning a face mask give away day
Community Hospitals of Williams County President Chad Tinkel informed the press that the hospital has started non-essential surgeries and screenings again and did approximately forty during the first week of May. As of May 8th, 2020 they have done 183 tests with 160 negatives, 9 positives and 14 pending.
They have eighteen in-house tests remaining and are hopeful to receive more soon. Mask decontamination through Battelle for N95 masks continues. The week of May 1 they sent in 293 masks and received 240 back. The week of May 8th they sent in 105 masks.
Rob Giesege of Four County ADAMhs Board brought information that the State COVID Care line IS temporary and thus it is advised that people needed assistance for emotional or mental struggles should call the local hotline. That number is 1-800-468-4357. The other item he mentioned is that they are working on some grants to get reimbursed for COVID expenses.
Watkins shared that as the EMA opened up a virtual EOC and that on that call there are representatives from the villages, the county, social service agencies, police, fire, and schools, everyone is up to date and trying to understand what we can and can’t do. He went on to say how very impressed everyone is with the communication of information which Apryl McClaine is directing.
“They are the ones that get the PPE out to the people who need it,” Watkins said, “ and they are doing a great job, unheralded though it may be.” McClaine shared that they are still collecting cloth masks and plan to have a drive-thru pickup soon.
Rebecca can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com