Pictured: Signs advising patients what to do if they have symptoms connected to COVID-19 are displayed on the door to the Columbus Regional Health Treatment and Support Center on June 9 in Columbus. Mike Wolanin | The Republic
COLUMBUS, Ind. — The local COVID-19 Community Task Force has decided to put its website that included data on community transmission of the virus on “pause” due to low traffic.
Last month, the city of Columbus, Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. and Columbus Regional Health jointly agreed to put the website on “pause” for now, said Mary Ferdon, the city’s executive director of administration and community development.
Over the course of the pandemic, the website, covid19communitytaskforce.org, has contained periodic updates of COVID-19 hospitalizations at Columbus Regional Hospital and other metrics, links to virtual press conferences with local officials, information about small business loans, updates from local health officials, links to vaccination sites, among other information.
Currently, the website states that it “is no longer being updated,” but still includes links to information about COVID-19 testing, vaccines, the Indiana Department of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard, as well as some information in Spanish.
“The traffic to the site was minimal, and it made more sense to direct people wanting more information on testing and vaccinations to various sites which are linked on our website,” Ferdon said. “Those sites include CRH, the state of Indiana, the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.) We also have a link in Spanish for our Spanish-language residents.”
The website was launched on March 24, 2020, shortly after the formation of the community task force as the initial wave of COVID-19 swept across the country.
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
