Hometown Media Group (https://hmgccity.com/)
Wayne County has become a member of a club that local officials didn’t want to join. It is now one of 21 counties with the worst (red) advisory level for COVID-19. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Wayne County health officials have announced a total of seven new local COVID-related deaths. Four more deaths were reported Wednesday. The deaths included two males and two females.
Beginning Thursday, Sept. 9, Reid Health is pausing all elective inpatient surgeries as the health system works to manage the latest surge of COVID-19 cases. Wayne County moved Wednesday, Sept.
Four more Wayne County residents’ deaths have been related to COVID-19, with one of the new victims in their 30s, according to Wayne County Health Department Executive Director Christine Stinson. That person is the county’s youngest COVID-related fatality since the pandemic began in March 2020. Stinson shared the news of the newest deaths with Wayne County Commissioners on Wednesday morning (Sept.
Wayne County has lost its first 40-something resident to COVID-related illness. In addition, nearly 70 kids and teens tested positive for the virus during the Labor Day weekend, which is about the same number of patients in containment areas at a local hospital on Tuesday, Sept. 7.
Russell V. Bolser Sr., 80 of Liberty passed away on Thursday, September 9, 2021. He was born on July 6, 1941 to the late William Bolser and Evelyn Grau Bolser in Harrison, Ohio. On July 15, 1961, he married Margaret Hoskins. They recently just celebrated their 60th year anniversary, where they celebrated with their friends and family at there farm. Russell was a member of the American Quarter Horse association for many years.
An accident near a construction zone on Interstate 70 in Henry County on Friday afternoon (Sept. 3) sent westbound traffic onto U.S. 40 in Wayne County for several hours. Troopers from the Indiana State Police Pendleton District responded to a multiple vehicle crash involving three semi tractor-trailers on I-70 near the 124 mile-marker. The preliminary investigation by Master Trooper Barry Bischoff revealed a 2018 Freightliner semi tractor-trailer driven by Radenko Dzamic, 68, of Lyons, Illinois, was traveling westbound in the right lane. Traffic in the area was moving slow due to a construction zone.
Wayne County Health Department reported 144 lab-confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, Aug. 31, while state officials are offering a three-day drive-up testing and vaccination site at a local college to meet increased local demand. Of those new illnesses reported Tuesday, 54 were in ages 18 and younger. After a surge of positive tests in recent days, the 1,428 cases reported during August 2021 makes it the county’s second-highest month for infections. November 2020 has been the highest month tallied for Wayne County, with 1,801 cases.
Temporary vaccination and testing sites operated by state officials are being operated from noon to 8 p.m. Aug. 30-31 and Sept. 1 at First Baptist Church Family Life Center, 709 S. Memorial Drive, New Castle, and in a drive-thru format at Ivy Tech Community College, 2357 Chester Blvd., Richmond. Both sites will offer rapid antigen and PCR tests, and the Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Find a full list of participating sites for vaccines and/or COVID tests, respectively, at www.ourshot.in.gov.and scheduling.coronavirus.in.gov.
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Wayne County Health Department’s COVID vaccination clinic is open from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays, and is open to anyone 12 and older.
Wayne County has surpassed more than 100 new COVID cases in the daily count announced Thursday, Aug. 26, with nearly half of those illnesses in children. The county broke its one-day record for new cases, which has been in place since Nov. 19, 2020. The previous record was 103, and now the county has an additional 105 reported cases.
Superintendent Kyle Barrentine announced Tuesday afternoon (Aug. 24) that Nettle Creek Schools will have an eLearning Day on Wednesday, Aug. 25, followed by four days of virtual learning, because of COVID-19 case numbers. He said the district plans to return to in-person instruction on Wednesday, Sept. 1.
Emmett Smelser worked in several Midwest communities and spent some of his retirement years in Arizona, but he had committed to moving full-time to Richmond toward the end of his life. Smelser’s former local colleagues in journalism and those he met through many civic engagements are mourning his Aug. 13 death, which was announced by First English Lutheran Church in Richmond. Church officials said he had been in declining health in recent weeks. Smelser spent 38 years in the newspaper business, with 20 of those as a reporter and editor, and the remaining 18 as a publisher at Marietta, Ohio, as well as Richmond, Muncie and Marion in Indiana.
Several news developments have occurred with local school and government offices regarding mask requirements in recent days, and one school is switching to virtual learning for one week because of a high number of cases. Wayne County is now in the state’s orange, or second-worst, advisory level for its number of COVID-19 cases and testing positivity rate. Read more in-depth information about many of these decisions in the Aug. 25 edition of Western Wayne News. SCHOOLS
Hagerstown
Announced Monday afternoon (Aug.
Wayne County Commissioners have put off until Friday making a decision about making masking mandatory in county buildings. They will meet at 2:30 p.m. Friday in commissioners’ chambers in the Wayne County Administration Building. The commissioners initially postponed taking a vote during their regular meeting on Wednesday, choosing to wait until hearing the opinion of the Wayne County Health Board, which met at noon on Thursday. When the commissioners met at 3 p.m. Thursday, Commissioner Mary Anne Butters reported that the health board “strongly” recommended that that public and private organizations, as well as schools, support masking while inside. On Wednesday, Indiana officials announced Wayne County had moved to the orange advisory level, or second-worst, after being in the blue, or best, level just a couple of weeks ago.
Wayne County’s COVID cases are rising sharply, and as of Tuesday, Aug. 17, Centerville-Abington Community Schools is joining Richmond Community Schools in adding a mask requirement because more than 200 CACS students have had to be quarantined since its schools opened Aug. 9. In a letter sent home Monday to families, Centerville’s Superintendent Mike McCoy announced the district has had 20 positive cases, causing more than 200 students to be quarantined. Because CACS met the 10 percent threshold watched by the health department for students sent home because of COVID, he said the district was given two recommendations from the health department: masking of all students and staff, and/or closing the school for two weeks and returning with full mask requirements.