All WVPE listener counties have maintained their color status from last week on the state’s COVID-19 tracking map, but most are “orange,” indicating high spread of the virus.
Only LaGrange County remains in the “yellow,” indicating moderate spread of COVID-19. All other WVPE listener counties stayed in the “orange” and Fulton County stayed in the worse-off “red” category, indicating unchecked community spread.
Statewide, only three counties remain in the “yellow.” Twenty-one are now in the “red,” up from 13 last week. Indiana’s other 68 counties are all “orange.”
Hospitalizations continue to rise in Healthcare District 2, which covers most of the WVPE listening area.
As of Tuesday, 148 patients were hospitalized with COVID — comparable to the peak of the spring surge in May — and 24.8 percent of area ICU beds were available.
The surge in cases across the state has been driven by the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant — it currently makes up 98.4 percent of cases sampled by the Indiana Department of Health — and underwhelming levels of vaccination.
According to the state's vaccine dashboard, 53.6 percent of Hoosiers ages 12 and older have been fully vaccinated. That’s 0.6 percentage points more than last week, but vaccination rates still vary widely by zip code.
And according to the Centers for Disease Control, every Indiana county has “high” community spread of the virus, meaning both vaccinated and unvaccinated Hoosiers should wear masks indoors.
WVPE’s three Michigan counties — Berrien, Cass and St. Joseph — also currently have “high” community spread.
Contact Jakob at jlazzaro@wvpe.org or follow him on Twitter at @JakobLazzaro.
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