The Fond du Lac County Public Health Officer says the death of a Fond du Lac resident from COVID-19 is not listed as a Fond du Lac County case because he contracted the virus out of state and died out of state. Robert Westphal of Fond du Lac died this week in Naples, Florida where he lives during the winter. Westphal was the senior construction advisor and former senior vice president at Michels Corporation in Brownsville. When he first contracted the virus the state Department of Health Services listed it as a Fond du Lac County case because he gave Florida hospital officials his Fond du Lac address. His case was later removed from Fond du Lac County’s case total. “When it comes to jurisdiction, if somebody gives an address of Fond du Lac County as their primary address, then it pops into our system and we’re able to see that and identify and do contact tracing on whoever that individual is,” Public Health Officer Kim Mueller told WFDL news. On the flip side Mueller says there have been cases in Fond du Lac County where the person is from out of state. “If somebody traveled here, even if they’re not a Fond du lac County resident but need to be here because of a disease, this is their home base,” Mueller said. “There were a couple people in our count and we’re going to maintain those individuals in our count because this is where they were residing at that time.” The second coronavirus death involved an IT worker from Maryland working at St. Agnes Hospital. Forty nine year old Cesar Capule was working on an Epic Systems installation at St. Agnes when he fell ill. He died March 29. There are now 36 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Fond du Lac County and two deaths.
