Muskingum County Joint Unified Command Center convenes at County EMA again for weekly COVID-19 conference

ZANESVILLE – As per usual, the Zanesville – Muskingum’s Department of Health’s Medical Director Dr. Jack Butterfield took to the podium. The Muskingum County Library Systems’ Marketing Director Sean Fennell and Genesis Medical Group President Dr. Scott Wegner spoke as well. As Ohio will begin the re-opening process, Butterfield says people will have to rethink their definition of “normal”.

“Spacing in restaurants, disposable menus in restaurants, plexiglass shields at registers in every business, masks available at every door if you don’t have one, some businesses requiring masks for the time being; I see that also happening. There are many things in our new ‘normal’ that we didn’t see because we now realize how significant the risk is in not taking some of these measures,” Butterfield said.

There has been seven COVID patients treated at Genesis and there is 1 positive patient at the healthcare system’s Zanesville campus. Although Genesis is an essential business, Wegner is fully preparing to get back to work.

“We were restricted from doing all but emergency surgeries. For a hospital like ours, a surgery is a main part for what we do and so we’re back for all of the surgeries and procedures we’ve delayed. For example, hernia repairs, colonoscopies, things that people need to have done to get back to normal activities of daily living but had to delay because of the epidemic,” Wegener said.

Although Governor DeWine is not requiring the public to wear masks when places re-open, Butterfield highly recommends it.