EVANSVILLE — Vanderburgh County reported 77 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and one death Monday, remaining one of four counties in the state at an "orange" level indicating the virus is at a higher risk of spreading, according to the Indiana State Department of Health's statewide dashboard.
It brings the county to a total of 4,298 cases since the first one emerged on March 19. Last week Vanderburgh County had two days in a row of record daily case numbers.
One new death was reported on the state dashboard Monday for Warrick County due to COVID-19.
However, Warrick County Coroner Sarah Seaton said Monday four additional deaths occurred Sunday or overnight that have not shown up in the state's reporting yet. Later Monday, Seaton said one of the four was actually an out-of-state death and isn't included in Warrick's tally.
The three deaths were of longterm care patients. She said those were: an 82-year-old woman from Woodmont Health Campus in Boonville, an 81-year-old man from Newburgh's Signature Healthcare and a 58-year-old man from Transcendent South in Boonville.
Vanderburgh and Warrick are among the four Indiana counties where the virus is currently at the greatest risk of spreading, according to ISDH. They are 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 the entire state, Warrick, Spencer and Vanderburgh have the highest weekly cases per 100,000 population. Warrick registers with 326, Spencer with 236 and Vanderburgh with 220. Other nearby counties with high weekly cases per 100,000 population are Pike at 193, Posey at 173 and Gibson at 169. That number is updated weekly.
The 20-29 age group represents by far the largest demographic of COVID-19 cases in Vanderburgh County at 23.6% of the total, although that number has been dropping recently.
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The school-age demographic of children age 0-19 comprises 14.4% of all cases locally, higher than the state's proportion of cases in the 0-19 age bracket at 13.2%.
A new online tool designed to help track COVID-19 in Indiana schools gave local residents their first glimpse at details about cases in EVSC and other local schools.
The COVID-19 school dashboard offered by ISDH is intended to give the number of cases in particular schools around the state and can be found at coronavirus.in.gov/. Locally, it is the first historical snapshot of COVID-19 cases among students, teachers and staff. ISDH officials say the dashboard is in its infancy and is still relatively unrefined.
On May 21 — when Vanderburgh County had just 228 COVID-19 cases in all — just 3% of cases involved individuals 19 or younger.
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 Monday was reported to be 9% cumulatively, and the seven-day rate, covering Sept. 22-28, jumped to 14.5% from 13.3%.
The "all tests" positivity rate was 4.4% cumulatively and 5.5% over the same seven-day period.
A total of 47,511 individuals in Vanderburgh County have been tested for COVID-19 since March 11, with 70,941 total tests administered.
Local medical and health officials convened in late September to warn the public that COVID-19 remains a serious threat despite Indiana moving to Stage 5, the final phase of reopening, Sept. 26.
Among their warnings: Get your flu shot now, if possible.
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