Due to a steady increase in COVID-19 cases in Boone County over the month of July, the Boone County Commissioners have elected to renew the State of Emergency Declaration for Boone County. This declaration is effective on Monday, July 20 and may expire or be renewed every 7 days.
As of today, Boone County has approximately 589 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 50 deaths. New daily cases have increased from an average of about 3-5 per day during the months of May and June to an average of 9 per day during July. We expect the number of known and unknown cases will continue to climb. Initially, many new cases were attributable to spread in long term care facilities. More recently, the majority are due to community spread. This is especially concerning due to Boone County schools beginning the new academic year in a matter of weeks.
Re-issuing the Boone County State of Emergency Declaration will allow the Boone County Commissioners to once again designate and set up the Witham Pavilion at the 4-H Fairgrounds as a COVID-19 treatment facility if the need arises. It would also allow for the streamlining of communications and operations between Boone County Incident Command partners. In short, re-issuing the Declaration allows Boone County partners to be able to respond more efficiently to the COVID-19 situation in our county, whatever need may arise. We do not anticipate closures or restrictions placed on Boone County owned and operated buildings, but this may be subject to change at any time.
This declaration will expire in 7 days and may be renewed upon further evaluation. The Commissioners and county partners will reconvene every Monday for the time being to determine if a continued declaration is warranted. Evaluations will be daily and updates will be distributed as necessary.
Please forward inquiries to Claire Haughton, Public Information Officer with the Boone County Health Department, at [email protected] or (765)482-3942, option 7. For further information about COVID-19, please visit the Boone County website at boonecounty.in.gov, the Indiana State Department of Health at coronavirus.in.gov, or the CDC at coronavirus.gov.