The Boone County Health Dept. reported a single-week COVID-19 case record, as cases rise across the state and nation.
During the week ending Oct. 23, the BCHD reported 100 additional cases of COVID-19. The total was the highest single-week figure since the start of the pandemic. The prior week, the BCHD reported 73 additional cases, which was a single-week record at the time.
BCHD Public Health Educator Claire Haughton said the department, which tallies positive cases from Saturday to Friday, already knew of 76 additional cases by Wednesday, and she suspected that, if numbers continued to increase, the county would see another record-setting week by Friday.
Of the new cases reported for the week ending Oct. 23, Haughton said the BCHD reported new cases originating from Signature Healthcare at Parkwood, a long-term care facility in Lebanon that the department reported had an outbreak of the disease starting in early October.
On Oct. 20, the department reported a COVID-19 outbreak in a Boone County long-term-care facility resulting in 37 positive cases and four deaths. More were reported this week.
“We had about 10 Parkwood residents who were new active cases and about 10 Parkwood employees,” Haughton said. “However, not all of those employees live in Boone County, so they wouldn’t necessarily go toward that final count.”
But Haughton warned most of the new cases were not exclusive to long-term care facilities, indicating increased community spread. BCHD officials said no one city or town in the county had more community spread than the other. Haughton said the spike could be attributed to colder temperatures, but she added that it could also be a result of residents not properly following mitigation protocols.
“I think a lot of folks are tired of being cooped up inside,” Haughton said. “They are tired of social distancing. They are tired of wearing masks, so I think it’s a combination of the colder weather and people just wanting to get back to life as it was before.”
