Dubois County is back in the red advisory level for COVID-19.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Dubois County has seen 6,581 cases of COVID-19 and 118 deaths since March of 2020.
This recent uptick in cases is leaving many residents wondering why Dubois County has no designated COVID-19 testing site.
The Dubois/Spencer/Martin COVID-19 testing site at the Former Ruxer’s Golf Course building closed on July 8th to do the lack of funding.
The State-funded this testing site and made it available to Dubois, Spencer, and Martin County residents for free. But that funding expired on June 30th.
The second round of funding was due to arrive on July 1st and has not been allocated yet.
We spoke with Dubois County Health Department Administrative Director, Shawn Werner, about this issue, and this was his response.
“I’ve been in contact with them [the state] almost every day for the past couple weeks and I keep getting the same answer: that they’re working on it,” Werner says.
Werner says the guidelines that residents are encouraged to follow have not changed.
“They are still the same guidelines that we’ve been following since day one. If you want to protect yourself, get vaccinated, wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands, use sanitizer, don’t touch your eyes, nose, or mouth, and stay home if you’re sick,” he says.
This red designation will last for at least a week if not longer.
When looking at other counties in our viewing area, Posey, Orange and Gibson, and Perry counties remain at a red advisory level.
Knox, Daviess, Martin, Pike, Crawford, and Vanderburgh counties are currently in the orange advisory level.
Whenever a county’s metric/score rises to a higher color category, that county is moved to a more restrictive advisory level. When a county meets the metric/score of a less restrictive color category, it must remain in the less restrictive color for two consecutive weeks to be allowed to move down to the lower advisory level.
For this reason, a county’s advisory level can be different than its current weekly score.
For more information, visit coronavirus.in.gov.
