St. Joseph County and South Bend City officials were able to offer some positive news at their biweekly COVID-19 update on Friday, Jan. 15.
The county’s Deputy Health Officer Dr. Mark Fox says the county’s 7-day rolling average of new cases has improved steadily since Thanksgiving, and the post-holiday “bump” in new daily cases has not been dramatic.
He also says county hospitalizations are at their lowest point since the beginning of October.
With the county’s vaccination efforts well underway, South Bend Mayor James Mueller said this is hopefully the last time officials will have to ask citizens to “fully hunker down” for the next several weeks.
“After that, we’re not going to throw out everything," Mueller said. "But as the weather gets warmer, as the vulnerable populations have been inoculated, we’ll be in a different position.”
Mueller tempered his remarks with a warning about the more contagious variant of the virus that has been detected in Indiana and is currently spreading.
So far, 1,400 people have been fully inoculated in St. Joseph County, and over 8,400 have received a first dose of the vaccine.
The mayor added that the city of South Bend will continue to limit access to the County-City Building until further notice. The current plan is to keep the offices closed until the county returns to the “yellow” designation on the state’s COVID-19 tracking map. All meetings will continue to be held virtually.
Contact Gemma atgdicarlo@wvpe.orgor follow her on Twitter at@gemma_dicarlo.
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