GREENFIELD — Despite the positive COVID-19 tests of Greenfield Mayor Chuck Fewell and Greenfield Police Department Chief Jeff Rasche, the virus appears not to have spread further among city employees.
However, the city will be re-introducing some precautions.
“I’m really feeling a lot better,” Fewell said on Monday, Nov. 9. He was still experiencing mild symptoms, he said, but hoped to be able to test negative and return to work next week.
Fewell said he first noticed potential symptoms on Saturday, Nov. 7, when he developed a headache. The following day, he continued to feel sick, and decided he could not go into work on Monday without getting tested. On Monday, after getting a rapid test, he received a positive result.
“I went directly home and have not left here since,” Fewell said.
His wife, Kristin Fewell, who is a teacher at Harris Elementary in Greenfield, was immediately notified and returned home from school.
Mitch Ripley, human resources director for Greenfield city government, said the city identified which employees had been “close contacts” of Fewell — defined as people who have been within six feet of a person who has tested positive for a cumulative 15 minutes within a 24-hour period.
Those employees were sent from work and tested. All have since received negative results and returned to work, Ripley said. Some city employees are still self-isolating however; those in clerk-treasurer Lori Elmore’s office began doing so after another employee, who was not in close contact with the mayor, tested positive.
This week, the Board of Works and City Council meetings were conducted to allow Elmore, Fewell and others to attend virtually, while most members attended in person. Ripley said that is one of several measures the city is re-introducing to fight potential community spread of COVID-19. Visitors to the building will again have their temperatures checked before entering, departments are limiting traffic through the building, and employees who interface with the public are continuing to wear masks.
GPD Capt. Chuck McMichael said several members of the department’s staff were quarantined and tested after being identified as close contacts of Chief Rasche. All have since tested negative and returned to work.
Fewell said he did not know where he might have contracted the virus and noted that, unlike many private-sector employees who work around the same people every day, he and fellow city employees meet many members of the public in the course of their work — making testing and contact tracing all the more important.
Indiana health officials, including health commissioner Dr. Kristina Box, who herself tested positive for and recovered from COVID-19, have said contact tracing is an essential element in fighting community spread of the virus. They have also said fewer Hoosiers who receive a contact tracing call from the Indiana State Department are complying with the correct procedure, with some not answering the call and others refusing to share their contacts.
The resistance to contact tracing contributes to community spread, Box has said, because those who may be carrying the virus but asymptomatic, or have not yet developed symptoms, are not informed they should self-isolate.
Fewell said he believes contract tracing, and getting tested if you believe you may have symptoms, are an important part of fighting COVID-19. He advised that people who may be sick should follow his example and get tested as soon as possible.
“It’s up to us as individuals to police this,” Fewell said this.