As COVID-19 cases continue to increase in Grant County, officials are once again asking the public to do its part in flattening the curve in an effort to avoid more formal and sweeping restrictions.
At a Wednesday press conference, EMA Director Bob Jackson and Health Officer Dr. William David Moore said Grant County is back into the orange zone based on the Indiana State Department of Health’s (ISDH) color-coded system. The county has reported a 12.7 percent positivity rate of those tested in the last week, with a total of 1,648 cases and 39 deaths reported since the beginning of the pandemic.
“That’s an increase and something we take very seriously here so we’re trying to do things to help mitigate that along with state and federal partners,” Jackson said of the designation to orange.
The color-based system ranges from blue to yellow to orange to red, with blue representing the lowest amount of weekly cases and seven-day positivity rate and red representing the highest, according to ISDH. Moore said while the lower levels typically represent COVID infections that can easily be traced back to the person who infected you, at the orange level COVID is so widespread throughout the community that it is harder to trace and contain.
The orange level also represents the status where the state recommends the county consider adding back restrictions, Moore said. According to a state document, those more restrictive actions could include limiting the size of social gatherings, restricting common areas in workplaces, more targeted testing, quarantine and isolation and attendance restrictions on school extracurriculars and sporting events.
In the red zone, the state health commissioner may act to limit county activities, including restrictions on social gathering sizes and large events, limiting visitation to high-risk populations, advising vulnerable individuals to stay home, rescheduling elective hospital procedures and restricting school extracurriculars to participants, coaches and support staff only, the document states.
Moore said the first time the county reached the orange zone a few weeks ago it was just barely over the line compared to yellow, but now the county’s statistics are near the top of orange and could push into the red zone if things continue as they are currently.
“Our numbers, the rate at which we’re increasing, is alarming,” he said.
Jackson said hospitalizations throughout District 6, which Grant County is a part of, are up, but Grant County’s health care system has not been completely overwhelmed at this point.
“We’re not perfect but we’re better at treating than we were before,” Moore said. “We’re beginning to challenge the edges of our health care facilities to take care – even with the improved treatments – the number of people that are coming in, and we haven’t yet hit flu season.”
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