board an update

YOUR GOVERNMENT Auman gives COVID-19 update to county board

13 percent of the county population has been tested so far

BY JEFF HELFRICH jhelfrich@oglecountynews.com

Ogle County Health Department Administrator Kyle Auman gave county board members an update on COVID-19 Tuesday night.

Auman said four new cases were reported on Tuesday for a total of 356. There were also eight new recoveries reported bring that total 300. Ogle County has had five deaths so far.

Only one individual is currently hospitalized with COVID-19, Auman said.

“To date, we’ve tested roughly 13 percent of the county population, which for rural counties surrounding us, is relatively high,” Auman said. “We currently have 131 people under investigation. We have 16 close contacts and 84 household contacts we’re working with under quarantine. To date, we’ve released 6,264 people that have received negative test results.”

Auman participated in the board’s regular meeting via the telephone as did many of the board’s 24-members.

He said area hospitals are still using triage lines to conduct testing. KSB Hospital tested 77 people Monday in Ogle, Lee and Whiteside Counties and 67 on Tuesday, Auman said.

Current areas of concern are longterm care facilities and daycares, he said.

“We’ve had several issues with day care facilities and are working with them to keep infections out and

Select Ogle County Board members and staff participated in a virtual meeting on Tuesday.

Jeff Helfrich/Shaw Media

at a minimum,” Auman said. “With long-term care we’ve worked with them to do testing.”

The OCHD has been working with county schools on plans to return to in-person instruction in the fall. Some districts are reporting up to 30 percent of parents don’t want their kids attending schools in person, Auman told the board.

He said he has been working on sourcing personal protective equipment for the schools and will be meeting with Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle and Emergency Management representatives to obtain PPE.

“We’re also talking about reopening the emergency operations center,” Auman said. “Last week, we saw one of our largest increases in a week. We’re concerned about that. The testing rates are high and we’re trying to keep our finger on the pulse.”

Numbers are back down to three cases per day this week and Auman said he’d like to see low numbers going forward in order for a successful start to the school year.

County Board member Kimberly Whalen, Rochelle, asked Auman how long it takes for COVID-19 test results to come back. He said up until two weeks ago, it was typically 3-5 days. That has changed.

“Now we’re seeing up to 13 days,” Auman said. “Testing supplies aren’t an issue any more. It seems to be labs being backed up. We’ve seen one instance where it took 18 days to get a test back. That makes things difficult not only for us, but for the person that’s sitting quarantined waiting.”

Auman said he hopes testing times will improve in the future. He also responded to a question about false negatives and positives, saying the OCHD has seen them, but they only happen less than 5 percent of the time in both directions.

Another board member asked if masks are required in all public places in the county. Auman said that they are.

Seven Ogle County Board members and staff attended the virtual meeting in person at the old Ogle County Courthouse.

None of them were wearing masks, but large signs are located near each entrance to the building detailing how masks are required to enter.

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