COVID-19 update: Vanderburgh and Posey counties both report a new death
Abbey DoyleEVANSVILLE, Ind. — The number of new reported COVID-19 cases in Vanderburgh County dropped below triple digits Sunday with 79 new confirmed cases reported, but with it came an additional death. Posey County also reported a new death, according to the Indiana State Department of Health's dashboard of cases.
On Sunday, Vanderburgh reported 79 new cases of the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, bringing the county's total to 6,090 since the first case emerged on March 19. Warrick County added 20 new cases for a total of 2,015; Posey County added 11 for a total of 766; and Gibson County added 13 for a total of 928.
While both Vanderburgh and Posey each reported one new death, there were no new deaths reported in Warrick and Gibson counties.
Hospital leaders have expressed concern about hospital capacity in the area.
Dr. Gina Huhnke, medical director for the emergency departments and director of medical affairs at Deaconess said they are seeing an increase in COVID cases.
Typically the hospital runs at 80% to 85% capacity. Recently, however, it has had some occasional “red” days when capacity hits the 90s. One day last week the hospital had to borrow some ventilators from another hospital in town, Huhnke said.
The ISDH's dashboard shows the multi-county District 10, where Vanderburgh and Warrick are the most populous counties, has 23.7% of their ICU beds available.
The concern raised by many health officials is that once flu hits full force these numbers will grow even higher.
ISDH updates its color-coded county-by-county rating system for quantifying risk each Wednesday. The latest update placed Posey County as one of four counties in Indiana which is red on ISDH's color-coded map.
The system 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, most recently on Wednesday.
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Posey County's number went down from 589 per 100,000 residents last week to 338. Vanderburgh County saw a decrease from 362 to 320 weekly cases per 100,000 residents.
Gibson County dropped from 353 to 243 weekly cases per 100,000 residents, while Warrick County dropped from 268 to 226.
Pike County has dropped significantly over the last two weeks from 653 two weeks ago to 242 for weekly cases per 100,000 residents.
Pike, Gibson, Vanderburgh and Warrick counties are in "orange" on the state's risk map for the rate at which COVID-19 is spreading.
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In Vanderburgh County, the number of cases in the 20-29 age group remains the largest demographic of COVID-19 cases, although that number has been slowly dropping recently. It ticked upward this week to 22.1%.
The school-age demographic of children age 0-19 clocks in at 13.7% of all cases locally. That number is slightly higher than the state's proportion of cases in the 0-19 age bracket at 13.3%. The number of those aged 30-39 in Vanderburgh County is 14.9%.
The ISDH dashboard now offers four separate figures for positivity rates. The "unique individuals" positivity rate for Vanderburgh Saturday was 11.1% cumulatively and the seven-day rate, covering Oct. 11-17, was 13.0%.
The "all tests" positivity rate was 4.9% cumulatively and 5.7% over the same seven-day period.
A total of 54,902 individuals in Vanderburgh County have been tested for COVID-19 since March 11, with 91,092 total tests administered.
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: 2,175
Total positive cases: 162,607
New deaths: 12
Total deaths: 3,894
Probable deaths: 236
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: 29,940
Total individuals tested: 1,629,468
7-day positivity rate for unique individuals: 13.1%
Vanderburgh
New positive cases: 79
Positive cases: 6,090
Deaths: 62
New tests administered: 1,418
Total individuals tested: 54,902
7-day positivity rate for unique individuals: 13.0%
Warrick
New positive cases: 21
Positive cases: 2,015
Deaths: 65
New tests administered: 322
Total individuals tested: 16,799
7-day positivity rate for unique individuals: 17.4%
Posey
New positive cases: 11
Positive cases: 766
Deaths: 7
New tests administered: 106
Total individuals tested: 5,681
7-day positivity rate for unique individuals: 19.9%
Gibson
New positive cases: 13
Positive cases: 928
Deaths: 12
New tests administered: 178
Total individuals tested: 6,710
7-day positivity rate for unique individuals: 214.2%
Spencer
New positive cases: 8
Positive cases: 412
Deaths: 6
New tests administered: 121
Total individuals tested: 3,656
7-day positivity rate for unique individuals: 13.4%
Perry
New positive cases: 28
Positive cases: 361
Deaths: 14
New tests administered: 199
Total individuals tested: 4,502
7-day positivity rate for unique individuals: 23.6%