COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations hit all time highs, the availability of quick testing before the holidays, timeline of the IU Health downtown Bloomington Hospital site plans, and UDO proceedings continue.
On this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton addresses these issues and more during a Zoom event Tuesday. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above, or read some of the questions and answers below. A portion of this segment airs 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU. Here are some highlights.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: The predicted spike of coronavirus is here – just Saturday 8,500 cases, hospitalizations at all time high … the governor ordered new restrictions, there’s a caveat – enforcement is not mandatory, what needs to happen next?
Hamilton: Well, we're in a dangerous area, Joe. Just to put a pin in this, in September we were seeing about 900 cases a day as the moving average. Just today I saw we almost reached 6,000 cases a day. That's a really rapid rise. And when you see those cases increasing, you know two things are going to follow - more hospitalizations because they come a little slower than the case arises, and deaths too.
So here very locally in Bloomington, we're doing better than the state. We're one of only five counties and the only urbanized county that was not subject to the governor's orders. The governor finally took action after the election. I think he's behind the curve a little bit. They're not moving quickly enough. We in this area have moved more quickly in July with a lot of restrictions. But even in Monroe County, we're seeing rises in cases, we're seeing rises in hospitalizations.
So the virus is here, the virus is not on break, the virus is as we get indoors, more, it's spreading more. So these are really challenging time
Hren: It's being called – COVID fatigue. It’s getting cold, the holidays are here, what should people do? How do you get tested with quick results before Thanksgiving? Kathryn also emailed in with the same question.
Hamilton: So we are reminded that even even when we're fatigued, doing the right things of masking, of not getting in large groups - and large group can be eight people. I mean, it's really trying to stay close to your family household members. I heard an epidemiologist over the weekend say, just don't share air with people that you don't live with. Don't be in a place because sharing that air is how this disease passes. So we really got to be careful.
Rapid tests, those that are done in 15, or 30 minutes or so are hard to come by. They're not the most accurate. IU is relying much more on the 24 hour 48 hour, PCR I think they're called tests. And we need a lot more testing, when we said this months ago that there should be much more testing available. It hasn't happened. Even if you get a negative test, you still can be infectious. It might miss it. They're not all accurate. I had two negative tests. When I found out later I have antibodies I was sick.
But even if you do get a negative accurate test, you could be infected and infectious within an hour. It's really hard to know and it reminds us we just have to be careful.
READ MORE: Indiana Records Another Record-High Number of COVID-19 Deaths
Hren: We talked about some of those restrictions the governor put into effect, although I don't think they include businesses, churches, schools. Joyce writes in and wants to know why church is exempt?
Hamilton: I think in the current state order, they are still encouraged to protect. I would say this. I know I've met with religious leaders in our community. I think the religious communities are generally very careful with how they behave and how they act with their congregations, their groups, many of them have people who are at some risk so I am not aware of significant spread through religious activity. Now weddings, receptions, you know even a Bible study if you're if you're not careful, any grouping of people, particularly indoors, is dangerous. So those are those are worthy of real attention.
Hren: Bobby emails and wants to know how do you put in a complaint on a business for not wearing masks?
Hamilton: You should call the county health department. Now I will let you know that in terms of individual mask wearing by customers, we tend to depend upon the businesses to implement those rules. If there are employees of the business that are not wearing them, that's subject to the business's oversight and the county health department has regulations to enforce that. They actually have several new compliance officers to help with that too.
Hren: Tina sends in a message, who is monitoring the parks? She sees very few adults and children wearing masks.
Hamilton: Generally in our county we have a requirement that you wear a mask when you're within six feet of each other. We monitor that. It is true and we inform people, we distribute masks. It is true that generally we are not finding individuals who declined to wear a mask. And overall, I would say in the community, our mask wearing is very strong.
Hren: Do you have any information about why Kilroy's was planning on opening, then postponed due to external circumstances?
Hamilton: You know, I really don't know their decision, Joe, I haven't been in touch with them. I did speak with one of the owners of Kilroy's when they announced their plans to open and indicated, we were concerned that they had not reached out to us ahead of their opening directly to coordinate their plans. And I simply indicated it was going to be really important that they open in a way that was safe, and that complied with all the rules.
And I haven't been in touch since then. They chose not to open.
READ MORE: Indiana Election 2020
Hren: I thought we'd do a quick comment on the election. We pretty much know Indiana's a red state. But are you surprised at all about the red wave throughout the state during this election?
Hamilton: Well, I think everybody had something they liked or didn't like probably in this election. From top to bottom, our county continued with strong democratic performance, our state did see significant republican performance and some gains. And then nationally, of course, we had a mix really from state from senate and house to the national election.
I do hope people who lose elections will concede - that's important. I've won elections, and I've lost elections, and you got to move on and accept the results of the people. It was a great turnout, which was terrific to see people are energized and care a lot. I would say this, we got some things to fix, we need to fix the election process. So it's easy to vote safe, to vote so as many people as possible can vote, we need to get rid of gerrymandering. That wasn't the way the vote was - the districts are dramatically skewed. And then the third thing is really looking at the electoral college. When you have a president win by more than 5 million votes, but it's a squeaker, we got to fix our democracy a little more.
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