The rising number of COVID cases in Daviess County and around the state are raising more and more concerns.
“It feels like it is getting out of control,” said Daviess County Public Health Nurse Kathy Sullender. “I don’t know why. It could be the colder weather or more people socializing. It has changed. Now we are seeing whole families come down with it. It’s all around us. There was a prediction of a surge in the fall and we sure got one.”
The numbers this month confirm those concerns. Since Nov., 2 Daviess County has recorded 401 positive cases of coronavirus and seven deaths. One of those deaths and 58 of those cases were recorded since Wednesday. The total number of cases has reached 1,321.
“We are not only getting more people who are sick but their symptoms seem to be lasting longer,” said Sullender. “Our hospitalizations are up and it seems to be all over the board. You can’t predict who this disease will hit and how severely it will impact them.”
Daviess County is in the state’s high “orange” rating with 392 cases per 100,000 people. A positivity rate (the number of total tests compared to those that come back positive) at 12.23%. The lone good news is that the positivity rate has dropped slightly.
“I have looked at our numbers and I honestly don’t know how it is that we do not have a ‘red’ rating,” said Sullender.
Daviess County is not alone. All of the surrounding counties have seen a growing number of COVID cases. All are in the state’s “orange” category.
Around the state on Friday the state was reporting 6,912 new cases of the coronavirus with 63 new deaths and a positivity rate of 12.1%.
“Community spread is at very high levels,” said IDHS Director Dr. Kristina Box. “If you look at all of the cases our entire state is in the ‘red.’ As we head into the holidays, we do not recommend taking anyone out of a long-term care facility to visit with family.”
Daviess County Health officials have closed off indoor visitation at area nursing homes and some have shut down all visits.
“People are not going to be taking anyone out of the long-term care facilities this year for the holidays,” said Sullender. “The majority of our facilities are not allowing it.”
The reason is not to separate families or to be cruel. But it is to save people from the more-cruel impacts of the coronavirus.
“We are really trying to protect our most vulnerable populations,” said Sullender. “We want to avoid the deaths and people being put on ventilators. Those things are awful.”
And while there is a vaccine moving through the system, the best protection for now remains, hand washing, social distancing, and sanitizing.
“I think we are in for a rough few weeks here,” said Sullender.
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