UPDATE (Oct. 17):
Based on newly released data on Sat., Oct. 17th from the Indiana State Dept. of Health, the state has hit another new all-time high in daily COVID-19 cases. The new data reflects cases reported on Fri., Oct. 16. On Friday the state saw 2,521 new cases of COVID-19. That exceeds the previous record day of reporting the day before when 2,328 new cases were reported. In releasing the new data, health officials also indicated that today's total includes approximately 100 cases whose reporting was delayed due to a technical issue over the past few days.
PREVIOUS POST (Oct. 16):
The Indiana Department of Health today announced that 2,328 additional Hoosiers have been diagnosed with COVID-19. This is the first time that the number of daily new cases has exceeded the 2,000 mark. According to state health officials that total includes approximately 300 cases that were part of a reporting delay caused by a technical issue.
In the WVPE listening area, Kosciusko County saw a significant spike in daily cases with the latest round of data that has come in. 54 new cases were reported on Oct. 15 in Kosciusko County. The county has a 21.3% 7-day positivity rate for unique individuals and a 15% 7-day positivity rate when it comes to all tests.
PREVIOUS POST (Oct. 15):
Based on data released by the Indiana State Dept. of Health, on Oct. 14th, Elkhart County reported 152 new COVID-19 cases. That is a new daily high in cases for the county. Previously, on Oct. 7th, the county had reported a daily high of 128 cases. This comes on the same day that the State of Indiana is seeing a new daily high in cases. On Oct. 14th statewide there were at least 1,960 new cases.
Elkhart County's Health Officer, Dr. Lydia Mertz, issued the following statement:
How is Elkhart County doing? Not well! We have sunk to the orange level by ISDH based on the number of new cases of Covid-19 we are seeing. That means we have a significant community spread of the coronavirus and the disease it causes. We need to change what we’ve been doing, and get back to the preventive measures we had been taking in August that caused our rate to come down then. We need to get vigilant, and get the number of new cases down right away.
The county metrics show we went from 163 cases/100,000 population to 296 positive cases/100,000 population, and our 7-day positivity rate went from 6.9% to 7.76%. These are the changes noted over a one-week span of time!
Please wear a cloth face covering in public, use distancing guidelines, avoid crowds, and wash your hands frequently. If you have even mild symptoms, or have been exposed to someone who has tested positive, please get tested. We all need to do these things
consistently to get the community safe again.
State health officials have added 28 more COVID-19 deaths in Indiana as the state’s seven-day rolling average of new cases of the respiratory disease has doubled in the past three weeks. The newly recorded deaths raise Indiana’s death toll to 3,864, including confirmed and presumed coronavirus infections. That’s an increase of 122 deaths in the past week.
For more information and county-by-county breakdowns of data, go to:
