EVANSVILLE — A trend of high COVID-19 counts in this area continues, with Vanderburgh County reporting 95 new confirmed cases Saturday according to the Indiana State Department of Health's dashboard.
There were no new deaths reported. On Friday, Vanderburgh hit a single-day high with 126 cases and four deaths. Vanderburgh's case total is up to 4,746 since the first known case emerged on March 19.
There was a new single-day high of 44 cases in Posey County reported Saturday.
There were two new COVID deaths in Southwestern Indiana Saturday: one in Warrick County and one in Spencer County. The region remains a hotbed in the state in terms of the rate at which the novel coronavirus, the cause of COVID-19, is spreading. Health officials have expressed concern over the sharp and continued rise of cases and the continued strain on medical resources.
Due to the rising numbers in Vanderburgh County, Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke on Friday announced additional restrictions on gatherings. The current mandate is that organizers of any event of 500 or more have to seek approval from the Vanderburgh County Health Department. New restrictions, in effect Oct. 19, set that threshold at 125 or more.
Winnecke said this decision came after receiving data from local and state health officials of the spread the community is seeing at public events. Local events that had multiple cases connected to them included funerals, a wedding and a sporting event.
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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, Southwestern Indiana counties have some of the highest weekly cases per 100,000 population. Pike, the state's only "red" county, has 653 per 100,000 new weekly cases. Posey registers with 361, Vanderburgh with 284, Gibson and Warrick with 261, Spencer with 197 and Dubois with 196. That number is updated weekly.
Vanderburgh, Warrick, Spencer, Gibson, Posey and Dubois counties are all in "orange" on the state's risk map for the rate at which COVID-19 is spreading. Only Grant and Henry counties in Central Indiana were also in the "orange" on the ISDH's color-coded map which is updated weekly on Wednesdays.
The number of cases in the 20-29 age group represents the largest demographic of COVID-19 cases in Vanderburgh County, although that number has been slowly dropping recently. It was 22.8 percent on Saturday, down from 23 percent Friday.
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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.
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 Friday was 9.6% cumulatively and the seven-day rate, covering Sept. 26-Oct. 2, was 14.9%.
The "all tests" positivity rate increased slightly, to 4.6% cumulatively and 7.2% over the same seven-day period.
A total of 49,449 individuals in Vanderburgh County have been tested for COVID-19 since March 11, with 75,278 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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