Brown County sees 16 deaths from COVID-19; School goes virtual

Brown County is showing 16 new deaths from COVID-19 in the Indiana State Department of Health daily update on the pandemic and the county is the only one in the state to be flagged for having a large number of its cases attributable to congregate settings.

Congregate settings are locations where people live, meet or gather in close proximity and can include homeless shelters, group homes, prisons, detention centers, schools and workplaces.

Brown County Schools Superintendent Laura Hammack announced last night that a staff member at Helmsburg Elementary School had tested positive for COVID-19 and that the close contacts identified with that person pushed the school past 20 percent of the building population needing to be absent from the building. That requires Helmsburg Elementary to move to the red advisory level, or remote instruction for all students through at least Jan. 12th.

The school district’s goal is to move Helmsburg Elementary back to the green level on Jan. 13th, but that could be extended if more cases are found.

Jackson and Johnson counties are the only other area counties to report deaths from the disease, each with one new death reported in yesterday’s update.

In our area, Brown, Johnson and Shelby counties are all at the red advisory level showing severe spread of the disease. Bartholomew, Decatur, Jennings and Jackson counties are all at the orange level, showing serious spread of the disease.