JCHD Announces Largest Increase Of COVID-19 Cases

This is the biggest increase of positive COVID-19 cases in a 24 hour period.

(Madison, Ind.) - On Tuesday, October 27, Jefferson County had an additional 44 positive COVID cases reported, making that by far our largest increase in a 24-hour period. If you are contacted by an Indiana Department of Health contact tracer or a Jefferson County Health Department staff member, please answer the call. It is important to follow their guidelines and work with them to identify other residents who may be at risk.

If you have been identified as a close contact, it is important to follow these guidelines:

• Stay home for 14 days after the last exposure to a person with COVD-19
  • Try to maintain a 6-foot distance from other household members
  • Use separate restrooms if possible
• Avoid travel
• Wash hands frequently
• Wear a facemask when around others
• Monitor yourself for symptoms
• Seek testing
  • Negative tests does not remove you from the 14 day quarantine early

Quarantining of close contacts is one of many ways we can slow the spread.

Jefferson County’s current COVID positive case count stands at 426 at the time of this press release. We have six schools in our county reporting cases, each school is reporting less than 5 cases among staff and students, we also have 5 long term care facilities reporting cases in staff or residents, each one reporting less than 5 cases in each facility. Our county metrics is 1, putting us in the yellow category which means moderate community spread. Community spread is defined as: experiencing positive cases who have had no know contact with a positive case. All of this information can be found at www.coronavirus.in.gov dashboard updates daily at noon. Cases that are received early in the day or late the previous day are not always captured on the dashboard.

We expected to see increases in cases when activities start moving indoors due to colder weather. As we move our activities indoors, we must remain vigilant. We have the tools right at our fingertips to slow this spread down and to continue to let our schools remain open and our businesses remain open. We ALL, as individuals, business owners, community leaders, need to do our part to ensure the safety and prosperity of Jefferson County.

• Social distance from those outside your household
• Mask up indoor public spaces regardless of social distancing and outdoor public spaces if social distancing cannot be achieved.
• Avoid large crowds (indoors and outdoors)
• Stay home if you are sick.
• Handwashing and hand sanitizing.

If you have any further questions please feel free to contact the Jefferson County Heath Department at 812 273-1942.