EVANSVILLE — After one day's respite from a run of triple digits, Vanderburgh County's number spiked again with 144 new cases reported Wednesday, according to the Indiana State Department of Health's dashboard of cases. The number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases reported for Vanderburgh County dropped to 50 on Tuesday, with two additional deaths.
Wednesday reported 50 new cases while Monday had 114, Sunday 142 and Friday the record high of 177 new confirmed cases of COVID-19.
There were no new deaths related to the virus in the area reported Wednesday.
Vanderburgh County now has a total of 7,691 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, since the first known case emerged on March 19.
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Deaconess Hospital officials Tuesday released a statement talking about fears of the system becoming strained as cases rise and we roll into flu season. They once again reminded the community to practice social distancing, to avoid gatherings, wear face-coverings and exercise good hand hygiene.
On Friday, Vanderburgh County Health Department Administrator Joe Gries said officials were not aware of any one "super spreader" event or gathering that could be responsible for the dramatic surge in cases, although he pointed out that Halloween a week prior could be contributing to the increase.
The state of Indiana reported 5,156 new cases and 31 new deaths Wednesday bringing the statewide total to 224,374 positive cases since March 6. There have now been 4,512 total deaths, according to the ISDH.
Warrick County added 52 new cases for a total of 2,575; Posey County added 14 for a total of 976; and Gibson County added 30 for a total of 1,266.
Perry County added 17 cases bringing their total to 670 and their 7-day positivity rate for individuals to 37.8%. They have 631 weekly cases per 100,000 residents, one of the highest in the state. Vanderburgh has 390 per 100,000 residents, Warrick 415, Posey 330, Gibson 522 and Spencer 458.
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In Southwestern Indiana, 31.3% of hospital ICU beds were reported to be occupied by COVID-19 patients. The ISDH's dashboard shows the multi-county District 10, where Vanderburgh and Warrick are the most populous counties, now has 20.3% of ICU beds available. Statewide, 30% of ICU beds are being used for COVID-19 while 26.3% are available.
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ISDH updates its color-coded county-by-county rating system for quantifying risk weekly, most recently Wednesday.
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.
Vanderburgh, Warrick, Posey, Gibson and Spencer counties are in "orange" on the state's risk map for the rate at which COVID-19 is spreading. Perry County moved into the "red" with an alert that there's been a large number of weekly cases attributed to congregate settings such as nursing homes.
A total of 59,984 individuals in Vanderburgh County have been tested for COVID-19 since March 11, with 107,575 total tests administered. The number of cases in the 20-29 age group remains the largest demographic of COVID-19 cases, with 21.7% on Sunday.
The school-age demographic of children age 0-19 was at 13.7% of all cases locally. That number remains slightly higher than the state's proportion of cases in the 0-19 age bracket at 13.5%.
The ISDH dashboard offers four separate figures for positivity rates. The "unique individuals" positivity rate for Vanderburgh Tuesday was 12.8% cumulatively and the seven-day rate, covering Oct. 29 to Nov. 4, was 17.7%.
The "all tests" positivity rate was 4.9% cumulatively and 5.4% over the same seven-day period.
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