Bartholomew County going back to Stage 4.5 after disease spike

Editor’s note: This story will be updated

The Bartholomew County COVID-19 Task Force announced this morning that the community will be resetting to Stage 4.5 of the governor’s Back on Track plan after a spike in local cases of the disease.

Dr. Brian Niedbalski, the county health officer, said the official announcement could be coming as soon as this afternoon.

Niedbalski explained some of the restrictions that are being put back in place:

Some of the main changes are that dining rooms in restaurants will still be open, but will be reduced to 75 percent capacity. Bar seating and capacity will be reduced to 50 percent, as will bowling alleys and movie theaters and any other indoor entertainment activities.

Niedbalski said that the event capacity had been lifted to 500, but will now be restricted again to 250. And where specific events were previously allowed to submit plans to go above those limits, at least for the time being that will be a hard limit that can not be exceeded.

Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop and Dr. Jim Roberts, superintendent of Bartholomew Consolidated Schools both stressed the importance of community cooperation to help get this spike under control so things can again be returned to a more normal level of operations. Measures that help include wearing masks, social distancing and frequent hand-washing and sanitizing.

Dr. Thomas Sonderman, chief medical officer at Columbus Regional Health, said that contract tracing locally has revealed major outbreaks that can be attributed back to social events such as Halloween parties, weddings and birthdays, or through contact with an infected person in the household.

Roberts said that there has been no evidence that school activities, either in class or extra-curricular, have led to outbreaks of the disease.

The decision to reinstitute restrictions comes on the heels of the Bartholomew Consolidated Schools switching to virtual learning due to the increase in community spread of the disease. That will to into effect on Monday.