COLUMBUS, Ind. —
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. will continue in-school learning next week, after school and local health officials determined overall COVID-19 infection data has improved over the last week and a half.
Superintendent Jim Roberts said the meeting, which he organized, was not a result of recent hospitalization numbers.
School corporation officials meet with “local medical professionals” each Thursday morning to discuss anything related to COVID-19, whether it be locally or statewide, he said. While some who attend are on the COVID-19 Community Task Force, other individuals are also present, such as a representative from the teacher’s association and Superintendent Shawn Price from the Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp., Roberts said.
The meetings are not open to the public or the media.
The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at Columbus Regional Hospital reached a record high on Monday, with 22 adults hospitalized locally with COVID-19 that day, surpassing the previous overall peak of 20 in late April.
By Tuesday morning, hospitalization dropped to 16, with four patients listed in critical condition and 12 in stable condition, the hospital said.
All but five patients in the hospital with coronavirus infections on Tuesday were Bartholomew County residents. The other COVID-19 patients hospitalized on Tuesday were residents of Brown, Jefferson and Decatur counties, the hospital said. Roberts said he believed there were eight hospitalizations as of Thursday.
Bartholomew County reported four deaths from COVID-19 between Wednesday and Friday, according to state data. Deaths are reported when information is provided to the state and do not correlate directly to the date of death, state officials say in a disclaimer on their dashboard.
For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.
