Elkhart County (Ind.) is the first county in the state to receive a CDC team specifically due to coronavirus, according to Jen Tobey, director of the Elkhart County Emergency Management Agency.
“We received confirmation from Dr. (Kristina) Box that … the state has leaned on the CDC with some questions and concerns and there’s been some CDC representatives from Atlanta that have come in for some other reasons but we are the first county that has actually received a CDC team in the state, specifically to COVID-19,” Tobey said. “Nobody else has gotten that.”
While the Indiana State Department of Health reported four new deaths Wednesday in Elkhart County, Tobey said there were nine new deaths.
“It doesn’t mean that nine people died yesterday and were reported today,” she explained, “it just means that nine people affiliated with an address within Elkhart County have passed and they were added up to be reported today.”
Click here to read the full report from Aimee Ambrose of The Goshen News.
The fact that Elkhart County is the first in the state to get a CDC team sends a strong message to Tobey.
“For me, that speaks loudly that we still have a problem. We’re hoping that – people don’t like the term ‘new normal’ even though we are leaning toward that new normal – and the six-feet separation and the mandating of masks, it’s real,” she said. “There’s a reason behind it. This is just, for me, another piece of the pie to say that we still have issues. Because, now, the CDC is deploying a team from Atlanta and Puerto Rico to come here and help us flatten this curve. Because it’s not happening.”