STAY AT HOME, STAY SAFE, STAY HEALTHY

The Greene County Health Department (GCHD) urges residents to follow Governor Holcomb’s Directive for Hoosier to Stay-At-Home, Executive Order 20-08, as the number of confirmed local COVID-19 cases begin to rise. The health department reports that Greene County has experienced a sharp increase in confirmed, positive COVID-19 cases in the last 96 hours, going from one (1) case on 3/28/2020 to seven (7) cases as of today, 4/1/2020.

Our Health Officer, Dr. Peter Powers, is on the frontlines has he continues to treat and advise patients admitted to Greene County General Hospital. The Greene County Health Department supports minimizing the spread by continuing to educate, inform and contact trace exposures of COVID-19. Our Public Health Nurse, Stacie Fonderhide, leads this effort by personally contacting anyone who has been exposed to a lab confirmed positive case. As the number of confirmed, positive COVID-19 cases increase in our County, we are all focused on managing this unprecedented situation with both urgency and a deep sense of care.

As citizens, we must work together by taking appropriate actions to protect our families, friends and community by complying with the Governor’s executive orders to stay at home during the State of Emergency COVID-19 Crisis. We know the most effective way of minimizing the spread of COVID-19 is to regularly practice the following:

frequent hand washing;
not touching your face;
practicing cough etiquette and respiratory hygiene;
regular cleaning and disinfecting of high contact surfaces;
staying home if you are sick;
distancing yourself from others who may be sick; and
practicing social distancing of 6 feet if you must go out for life sustaining activities like food or medical appointments.

Individuals and families who need help during this crisis may visit the health department’s website COVID-19 page at www.co.greene.in.us/health for links to resources provided by the State and other supportive service agencies.

To the businesses in our community, we understand these are difficult and unprecedented days for all of us and ensuring the wellbeing of our employees, our customers, partners, vendors and their families is our number one priority. As testing increase, our cases are expected to rise which stresses why the Governor has extended executive orders 20-04, 20-10 & 20-11 with executive order 20-14 pertaining to restaurants and alcoholic beverages through April 6th. Our efforts to minimize the spread of COVD-19 is a moving target; therefore, the Governor may re-assess executive orders often. In the interim, we know the most effective way of minimizing the spread of COVID-19 is to continue practice safety precautions such as:

cancel public and private large meeting and/or events;
ensure social distancing amongst employees and customers;
routine environmental cleaning; and
stop dine-in/table-top, patio, parking lot service at restaurants, bars, nightclubs and other entities.

Businesses who need assistance during this crisis may find useful information on the following website:

Indiana Office of Community & Rural Affairs’ (OCRA) COVID-19 Resources page at www.in.gov/ocra for links to resources provided by the State and Small Business Administration.

Additional Resource: COVID-19 Resource Guide for Hoosiers Looking or Assistance

Greene County Health Department is dedicated to transparency and pledges to keep the community informed by sharing information by press releases as well as its webpage at www.co.greene.in.us/health. Up-to-date information on Indiana COVID-19 cases can also be found at ISDH at www.IN.gov/ISDH.