PLYMOUTH – In a morning teleconference, Marshall County government officials updated the media on current COVID-19 response information for residents.
President of the Marshall County Commissioner Kevin Overmyer, Marshall County EMA director, and Marshall County Health Department Nurse Lisa Letsinger updated members of the local media on current activity.
“We’ve had a task force conversing by conference call twice a day things keep changing every day,” said Overmyer.
The task force consists of Overmyer, Avery, Letsinger, Dr. Byron Holm and Commissioners Stan Klots and Mike Burroughs as well as
County Council members Penny Luchenbill and Judy Stone.
“So far we are at zero cases here in Marshall County,” said Overmyer. “Yesterday we had a conference call with all the jurisdictions (local towns). They did what we did in declaring an emergency, we are keeping track of all expenses.”
“The cooperation that we’ve had throughout the communities has been outstanding,” he said.
“Everyone is eager to help, we did ask for medical items,” said Letsinger. “Inventory is very low and we are not able to order those items. We will be reaching out to those who need those items and not able to purchase at this time.”
Late last week the County had declared an emergency for the main purpose of keeping track of expenses incurred by the County in battling the pandemic.
“Even as we speak Stan (Klotz) is in Bristol,” said Overmyer. “We found a company that would make a 50 gallons of hand santizer and he’s bringing that back to distribute.”
“One of our suppliers of slag that we use in chip and seal is proving N95 masks that we will be picking up next week,” said Overmyer. “We are getting 300 more from a company to take to the health department to distribute them quickly. We had some yesterday and the health department distributed those.”
The county has also reached out to residents that do not have ready access to normal mainstream media.
“Yester day 26 packets of information were distributed to the Bisops in Amish country,” said Overmyer. “We went as far as New Paris and Milford they will distribute to families over there.”
“The action that the governor took to try to control this is going to affect a lot of people,” said Avery. “With more businesses closing unemployment will be starting to rise people will be unable to get out and get things.”
“We’ve seen a lot of what I call is panic buying,” he said. “We encourage you to get ahold of the local food bank and see how you can help. With more people needing help there will be shortages at the pantries. Maybe take them some items that you bought but you may not need.”
Officials are encouraging residents that if they feel they need a test for COVID-19 to call their health care provider for an initial screening and if you have none call the hotline at 574-335-8560.
There are also encouraging residents to get their information from the Marshall County Health Department, the ISDH, and local government websites.
“It’s been a learning experience for all of us. I feel that we have been prepared up to this point,” said Overmyer. “If you have non-essential people or employees with health issues or family members with health issues have them stay home.”
