According to Indiana’s COVID-19 dashboard, Knox County this week has the highest rate of infection in the state — a rate that would equal 133 cases per 100,000 people.
According to current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, Knox County is in the “severe” category for infections for the second straight week.
Only three other Indiana counties — all in the Southwest part of the state — come close to matching the surge seen locally.
Nearby Vanderburgh County currently averages 127 cases per 100,000, with neighboring Gibson and Warrick counties closely following.
Knox County Health Officer Dr. Alan Stewarts says “we’re still seeing the surge,” adding that case counts have continued to trend upward.
Stewart says there were 19 new cases of the virus recorded on Wednesday, and a total of 485 cases listed on the state’s dashboard.
Good Samaritan Hospital currently has six inpatient COVID-19 cases, three of whom are listed as in intensive care. Stewart says that roster includes one young adult.
And, the health officer reminds residents, the numbers reflected on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard are very likely grossly underreported, in large part due to the availably of home testing kits.
The county, too, has added one additional death as a result of the virus — the first one in months — raising Knox County’s death toll to 154 individuals.
Stewart says the increase in cases and hospitalizations seems to still be the result of the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron variants of the virus, both of which are highly infectious and capable of finding inroads around the current vaccines.
Many health officials believe the variants to be as contagious as measles — the most contagious disease known to humankind thus far.
The highly transmissible offshoots of the virus prompted the Biden administration last week to call on people to exercise renewed caution about COVID-19, emphasizing the importance of getting booster shots for those who are eligible and wearing masks indoors as the variants spread rapidly across the nation.
Stewart continues to advise caution locally amidst the surge, saying that vaccines and proper face masks are the two greatest tools available to fight against the virus.
“Those are the best ways to provide some protection,” he said, encouraging locals to visit the health department for the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
Though the current strains of the virus are able to skirt around the available vaccines, health officials are quick to point out that the vaccines still offer significant protection, greatly diminishing the risk of serious illness and death.
“And there is obviously still death,” Stewart said. “Less than it was before, but it can still cause death.”
In 2020, before vaccines were available, roughly 3% of those infected with COVID-19 died as a result of the virus. Now, Stewart says, that number is closer to 1%.
“And that’s still too many — the vaccines can get that number lower,” he said, indicating that if everyone eligible would be vaccinated, the death rate would continue to drop.
Soon, a new vaccine should be available.
Regulators authorized the nation’s first so-called protein vaccine against COVID-19 last week, including a recommendation from the CDC.
Considered a more traditional type of vaccine, U.S. adults who haven’t had any COVID-19 shots yet should consider the new option of Novavax, health officials said Tuesday.
“If you have been waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine built on a different technology than those previously available, now is the time to join the millions of Americans who have been vaccinated,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, CDC’s director, said in a statement, endorsing an earlier decision from an influential advisory panel.
CDC officials say between 26 million and 37 million American adults haven’t had a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccination, and that is who Novavax, for now, will be targeting.
“We really need to focus on that population,” said CDC adviser Dr. Oliver Brooks, past president of the National Medical Association. Hopefully, the vaccine “will change them over from being unvaccinated to vaccinated.”
The Novavax vaccine isn’t, however, available locally yet, officials said Wednesday.
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