A one-day increase of 89 COVID-19 cases was reported by the Vigo County Health Department on Tuesday, bringing the county’s case count to 1,377.
Vigo County Health Department educator Roni Elder said a large portion of the increase was due to an increase in inmate cases at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute.
College students returning to local campuses have also added to the positive cases, Elder said, and several positive cases have occurred among families and other close contacts spreading the virus within their groups.
The federal prison complex’s infection rate more than quintupled in about a week’s time, according to information available on the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
As of Aug. 24, Vigo County had 1,075 cases of COVID-19. At that time, the U.S. Penitentiary (maximum security) reported 12 cases and the Federal Correctional Institution (medium and minimum securities) reported 10 cases.
As of Sept. 1, the USP was reporting 70 cases and the FCI was reporting 48 cases for a total of 118 at the correctional complex.
Meanwhile, at west central Indiana state prisons, COVID-19 cases have been relatively low among both staff and inmates at the Rockville women’s prison and at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility (maximum security) at Carlisle.
On Tuesday, the Indiana Department of Correction reported the Rockville facility reported one inmate illness and one inmate recovered from COVID-19, while eight staff had tested positive for the virus and six had recovered.
At the Carlisle prison, six inmates had tested positive and five had recovered, while 26 staff had tested positive and 21 had recovered.
However, at the Putnamville Correctional Facility in Greencastle, 172 inmates had tested positive for COVID-19, and 36 had recovered. Among staff, 20 had tested positive, and 12 had recovered, according to the DOC website.
The Indiana State Department of Health was reporting 17 deaths in Vigo County due to COVID-19 as of Tuesday. The most recent deaths occurred Friday and Saturday.
Also Tuesday, ISDH announced that 721 additional Hoosiers were diagnosed with COVID-19 through testing at the state laboratory, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and private laboratories. That brings to 94,891 the total number of Indiana residents known to have the novel coronavirus following corrections to the previous day’s dashboard, located online at www.coronavirus.in.gov.
A total of 3,093 Hoosiers were confirmed Tuesday to have died from COVID-19, an increase of 16 from the previous day. Another 219 probable deaths have been reported based on clinical diagnoses in patients for whom no positive test is on record.
Deaths are reported based on when data are received by the state and occurred over multiple days.
To date, 1,083,765 tests for unique individuals have been reported to ISDH, up from 1,076,947 on Monday.
To find testing sites around the state, visit www.coronavirus.in.gov and click on the COVID-19 testing information link.
Three testing sites are available in Vigo County. They are CVS at 670 Margaret Ave., Union Hospital at 221 S 6th St., and ISDH/Optum Site at 501 E. St. Anthony Drive.
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