Vanderburgh, Warrick in 'orange' as rate of COVID-19 spread continues to increase: ISDH
Mark WilsonEVANSVILLE, Ind. — Vanderburgh, Warrick, Posey and Gibson counties on Wednesday all reported new deaths due to COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
Vanderburgh and Warrick are now among the four of Indiana's 92 counties where the virus is currently at the greatest risk of spreading, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
Spencer and Brown are the other counties in the "orange" level on ISDH's color-coded map assessing key metrics in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The county-by-county rating system for quantifying risk is intended in part as a guide for school leaders on whether to keep students in classrooms. ISDH assigns counties scores based on the number of new cases per 100,000 residents and the percentage of positive COVID-19 tests.
Each county is designated a color, given the average of those numbers. The colors range from blue — least community spread — to yellow, orange and red for greater spread. The map is updated weekly.
In addition, state health officials flagged Warrick, Spencer and Brown for a high number of cases attributed to "congregate settings."
In the entire state, Warrick, Spencer and Vanderburgh have the highest weekly cases per 100,000 population. Warrick with 326, Spencer with 236 and Vanderburgh with 220. Other nearby counties with high weekly cases per 100,000 population are Pike, 193, Posey, 173 and Gibson with 169.
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Wednesday on the Indiana State Department of Health's statewide dashboard of cases, Vanderburgh County reported 64 new positive cases and one new death, for a total of 3,906 positive cases and 32 deaths since March 19.
Warrick County reported four new deaths and 21 new cases. Warrick's death total is now 47, with a total of 1,428 positive cases. Gibson's death total is now 6 with 560 total positive cases.
A day after Posey County reported its first death, a second death was reported Wednesday with 17 new cases. Posey now has 371 total positive cases. Both deaths were women, ages 69 and 82, according to the Posey County Health Department. Neither of them were in long term care.
Warrick County Coroner Sarah Seaton on Tuesday reported three of the new coronavirus-related deaths were elderly individuals, including two more from Woodmont Health nursing home in Boonville.
Those two were women, 91 and 88, Seaton said. The third new death involved a 93-year-old woman. On Wednesday, Seaton said the fourth death was a 98-year-old man from Transcendent Health.
The Vanderburgh County Health Department and local government officials have attributed much of the recent spike in cases to Labor Day weekend, noting increases also were observed after Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.
The 20-29 age group represents by far the largest demographic of COVID-19 cases in Vanderburgh County, at 24.3 percent of the total — although that number has been dropping recently.
The reopening of schools also seems to be a significant factor. The percentage of all COVID-19 cases attributable to school-age individuals has risen since Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation's return.
The school-age demographic of children age 0-19 comprises 14.6 percent of all cases locally. That is significantly higher than the state's proportion of cases in the 0-19 age bracket, which rests at 13.1 percent.
Some area schools or entire districts have closed in-school instruction temporarily due to rising COVID-19 cases, including Memorial High School last week and all of the North Posey Schools district this week and Princeton Community High School for the remainder of the week.
On May 21 — when Vanderburgh County had just 228 COVID-19 cases in all — just 3 percent of cases involved individuals 19 or younger.
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The ISDH dashboard now offers four separate figures for positivity rates — the percentage of people tested who come up positive for COVID-19. The "unique individuals" positivity rate for Vanderburgh Wednesday was reported to be 8.6 percent cumulatively, and the seven-day rate, covering Sept. 17 to Sept. 23, clocked in at 10.5 percent.
The "all tests" positivity rate was 4.3 percent cumulatively and 5.2 percent over the same seven-day period.
A total of 45,557 individuals in Vanderburgh County have been tested for COVID-19 since March 11, with 65,617 total tests administered.
Local medical and health officials convened last week to warn the public that COVID-19 remains a serious threat despite Indiana moving to Stage 5, the final phase of reopening, Saturday.
Among their warnings: Get your flu shot now, if possible.
The Vanderburgh County Health Department buttressed the warning by issuing a news release Thursday morning emphatically denying what it called an "urban myth" that the flu vaccine reduces a person's ability to fight COVID-19.
"Some studies have shown that the most heavily vaccinated individuals respond to new threats much better than individuals lacking a history of vaccination," said the statement signed by health department and local hospital officials.
The state dashboard's map now displays Gibson County in orange, which means the state has flagged the county as a concern. The data lists a "large number of weekly cases being attributable to congregate settings" with a weekly 240 cases per 100,000 residents and a seven-day "all tests" positivity rate of 6.94 percent.
The number of COVID-19 cases that remain active in Vanderburgh County is no longer available. The Vanderburgh County Health Department's dashboard had been providing that number — but the local agency stopped reporting COVID-19 data in July, ceding control of all local data to ISDH. The state agency has taken over local contact tracing and case investigation but doesn't issue a number of local active cases.
The ISDH updates its online dashboard of COVID-19 data daily, including deaths, as it tracks the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Here is the latest information available for area counties.
INDIANA
According to the ISDH dashboard:
New positive cases: 965
Total positive cases: 120,019
New deaths: 20
Total deaths: 3,405
Probable deaths: 227
Those are cases when a physician lists COVID-19 as a contributing cause of death but there are no positive test results recorded.
New tests administered: 24,367
Total individuals tested: 1,379,850
7-day positivity rate for unique individuals: 7%
Vanderburgh
New positive cases: 64
Positive cases: 3,906
Deaths: 32
New tests administered: 730
Total individuals tested: 45,557
7-day positivity rate for unique individuals: 10.5%
Warrick
New positive cases: 21
Positive cases: 1,428
Deaths: 47
New tests administered: 202
Total individuals tested: 14,188
7-day positivity rate for unique individuals: 16.9%
Posey
New positive cases: 17
Positive cases: 371
Deaths: 2
New tests administered: 69
Total individuals tested: 4,382
7-day positivity rate for unique individuals: 16.9%
Gibson
New positive cases: 15
Positive cases: 560
Deaths: 6
New tests administered: 57
Total individuals tested: 5,553
7-day positivity rate for unique individuals: 15.4%
Spencer
New positive cases: 1
Positive cases: 269
Deaths: 3
New tests administered: 18
Total individuals tested: 3,007
7-day positivity rate for unique individuals: 16.5%
Perry
New positive cases: 4
Positive cases: 226
Deaths: 13
New tests administered: 49
Total individuals tested: 3,859
7-day positivity rate for unique individuals: 8.8%
