BARRY-EATON CO, Mich. (WLNS)– Health officials with the Barry-Eaton County Health Department said over the past few weeks they’ve seeing an unprecendented increase in COVID-19 cases.
“For Eaton County, compared with the beginning of September, we have 10 times as many cases coming in. For Barry County, we have 17 times as many cases so those increases are just astounding,” Anne Barna, Public Information Officer for the Barry-Eaton County Heath Department said.
As the department sees nearly 100 cases per day, sometimes more, they’re now having to prioritize which case investigations they’re pursuing first.
“We’re still trying to investigate as many cases as we can, but quite often we’re not able to reach people in a reasonable amount of time,” Barna said.
If you know you’re positive, you’re encouraged to start isolating right away rather than waiting for a call from the health department.
“We want people to start notifying their own close contacts and then those contacts need to start quarantining. So, while the person is contagious, which is two days before they start having symptoms or two days before they test positive if they don’t have symptoms, anyone that they’ve come into close contact with, we’d appreciate it if they’d notify that person and then that person can start quarantining.” Barna said.
She added, in terms of transmission, cases are stemming mainly from workplaces and social gatherings.
As Charlotte Public Schools considers a temporary transition to virtual learning, Barna said that’s not because the schools themselves are not safe.
“By enlarge, most school districts that have been offering in-person instruction have done a fantastic job of putting measures into place to keep transmission very low, in fact, we aren’t seeing very much transmission within the school. What’s happening is people are bringing in COVID-19 into the school and then it’s causing exposure to others,” she said.
While Charlotte only has 8 active cases within the district as of Wednesday, more than 100 students and staff members are in quarantine, which means there are fewer teachers to be able to teach in person.
“Obviously we support schools in making those decisions,” Barna said.
As people continue to make plans, especially heading into the holidays, she wants to people to consider gathering outside, virtually, or celebrating at a distance.
“Now is the most riskiest time to be interacting with other people and the decisions that you make will absolutely affect you, but they will also affect others.”
