(La Porte County, IN) - COVID-19 is back in the news.

A new strain of the virus, known as EG.5 or Eris, is getting some people’s attention. Hospital admissions for COVID are a small fraction of what they were two years ago, and northcentral Indiana is in the lower half of most COVID tracking metrics. Still, there has been a rise, at least in emergency room visits, for COVID-like illnesses across the state in the last month. That’s according to statistics from the Indiana Department of Health.

Republican elected officials in St. Joseph County have made a preemptive strike against potential COVID restrictions. They released a statement last week pledging not to seek any reinstatement of mask mandates in St. Joseph County.

Here in La Porte County, mask mandates have not been debated, at least not at the executive level. County Commissioners say they have not discussed the issue. Commissioners Rich Mrozinski and Joe Haney told HTNN they would vote against a mask mandate, if it came up. Haney released a statement of his own on Friday. He said he opposed mask mandates in 2020 before he was elected, and he will continue to support individuals’ rights to make their own decisions when it comes to their health and health care.