EVANSVILLE — Vanderburgh County set a new one-day record for COVID-19 cases reported in a single day Monday with 210.
The county has accumulated 9,428 cases since the first known case emerged on March 19. The numbers can be found on the Indiana State Department of Health's statewide dashboard of cases.
No new coronavirus-related deaths were reported Monday in Vanderburgh, Warrick, Gibson, Spencer, Perry and Posey counties.
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Monday's new single-day record follows by just three days the last record, Friday's report of 184 new cases locally.
At this rate Vanderburgh County's grim march to 10,000 cases could end — but with no end to COVID-19 itself in sight — by Friday.
The county’s current run of COVID-19 cases began on Nov. 6, when the ISDH dashboard recorded a then-record-setting 177 new cases in a single day. Before the eye-popping number went up on the state’s dashboard at about 11 a.m. Central that day, Vanderburgh County stood at 6,981 cases reported.
That means 26 percent, or more than one in four, of the county’s cases – 2,447 of 9,428 — have been reported in just the past 17 days.
The seven-day rate of individuals testing positive in Vanderburgh County on Monday was 20.8% for the period of Nov. 10-16. It is, at least, a few ticks smaller than Saturday's figure of 21%.
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Deaconess and St. Vincent hospital officials spoke Thursday of strains on their facilities and employees as cases rise and flu season looms. They once again reminded the community to practice social distancing, to avoid gatherings, wear face-coverings and exercise good hand hygiene.
"Any time we run above 87% capacity, additional measures are required to maintain normal operations. We are running in the 90% and above range frequently now," Deaconess Health System President Dr. James Porter wrote in an email. "And unless public health measures are followed to reduce the spread of COVID-19, there is no reason to expect this to change.
"The upcoming holidays, and threat of influenza spreading, represent future risk of the situation worsening."
The state of Indiana reported 5,606 new cases Monday and 27 new deaths, bringing the statewide total to 300,913 positive cases since March 6. There have now been 5,067 total deaths, according to the ISDH.
Warrick County on Monday added 70 new cases for a total of 3,160; Posey County added 23 for a total of 1,189; and Gibson County added 54 for a total of 1,770.
ISDH updates its color-coded county-by-county rating system for quantifying risk weekly on Wednesdays. Spencer County has been placed in red, or high alert territory, along with Perry County. The other area counties remained in the orange.
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 weekly cases per 100,000 residents numbers updated for the week with all of the area counties increasing but one: Vanderburgh has 495 per 100,000 residents, Warrick 520, Posey 440, Gibson jumped from 522 to 790, Spencer has 581 and Perry decreased to 479.
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In Southwestern Indiana, 49.5% of hospital ICU beds were reported to be occupied by COVID-19 patients. ISDH's dashboard shows the multi-county District 10, of which Vanderburgh and Warrick are the most populous, now dropped to 17.6% of ICU beds available. Statewide, 43% of ICU beds are being used for COVID-19 while 22.4% are available.
A total of 65,900 individuals in Vanderburgh County have been tested for COVID-19 since March 11, with 128,060 total tests administered. The number of cases in the 20-29 age group remains the largest demographic of COVID-19 cases, with 21.0%.
The school-age demographic of children age 0-19 was at 13.7% of all cases locally, slightly lower than the state's proportion of cases in the 0-19 age bracket, 13.8%.
The ISDH dashboard offers four separate figures for positivity rates. The "unique individuals" positivity rate for Vanderburgh Monday was 14.3% cumulatively and the seven-day rate, covering Nov. 10-16, was 20.
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