Thursday morning the Marshall County Commissioners signed a Public Health Disaster Emergency Declaration as it relates to the coronavirus.
During the live conference call, heard on WTCA, Kevin Overmyer, President of the Commission said Marshall County has over 1,320 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 237 active cases and 26 deaths. He said St Joseph Hospital in Plymouth is full and that is a big concern.
Commissioner Overmyer and the Marshall County Health Department encourage residents to practice the three W’s: Wear a Mask, Wash your hands for 20 seconds and Wait 6 feet apart to avoid close contact. He told the media he feels citizens are becoming complacent. He said some of the spike in cases is coming from citizens who are attending our local churches. Overmyer suggested citizens limit large event gatherings.
Commissioner Overmyer, “This gives Doctor Holm the authority to do what he needs to do so we can curb this because I don’t think this is going away for a while.” Overmyer said people are tired of hearing about COVID and having to wear a mask but with the hospitals and ICU Units being full it’s still a threat.”
Overmyer said they have no plans to close the county buildings. He said they may consider go back to having all county employees wear a mask again. Overmyer said they are going to request people entering the county buildings wear a mask.
The county commissioners said, “I hope people understand why we are doing this. We are not trying to be mean or dictate to what people can do. We’ve got to stop this rise.”
Overmyer said he expects the Marshall County Health Officer, Dr. Byron Holm or the County Health Department to send out additional information on actions citizens should take to help reduce the number of positive COVID-19 cases.
