By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostThough coronavirus numbers are up, Buchanan County Presiding
Commissioner Lee Sawyer sees some optimism developing in the fight against COVID-19.Sawyer points out though the number of new cases and
hospitalizations have risen of late, efforts to develop a vaccine seem to be
bearing fruit.“I think there’s a lot of reasons to be optimistic,” Sawyer
says. “It’s not been a fun time to sacrifice some of the things that you’d like
to do and would want to do, but I do think that there’s some real reason to be
optimistic looking forward. But it doesn’t necessarily help right now.”St. Joseph health officials reported on Tuesday three
additional coronavirus-related deaths as well as 102 new cases of COVID-19. On
Monday, Buchanan County reported four deaths and 133 new cases. The county now
has totaled 5,250 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, resulting in 61
deaths.Mosaic Life Care reported 95 COVID-19 patients in its system
as of Tuesday morning; 82 in St. Joseph, nine in Maryville, and four in Albany.Sawyer cautions residents to continue wearing masks, keeping
six feet of distance with others, and washing hands frequently and thoroughly.Federal money forwarded Buchanan County by the state to fight
COVID-19 has largely been spent, according to Sawyer. Buchanan County received
$10.2 million in federal funds, an allocation based on county population.Sawyer says the County Commission has worked hard to make the
money count.“We have distributed over 300 of the small business grants,
which were the $5,000 small business grant. We have gotten some really good
feedback from some folks on that, that that really made a difference in keeping
them going. I don’t know if that will be enough of a help for everybody, but we
certainly hope so and that was the design,” Sawyer says.School districts in the county have been reimbursed for some
of the money spent to prepare school buildings for in-class teaching. Money
also has been used for additional testing to determine the spread of the
coronavirus in the county.“So, we’re not completely at zero, but we’re pretty close,”
according to Sawyer. “If you look at what we’ve allocated that we said we would
reimburse, we’re really close to using it all. We just have a little bit left.”Sawyer says the county faces a December 30th
deadline to spend the money.

Presiding Commissioner sees some glimmer of hope in COVID-19 fight