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UPDATE: St. Joseph County Leaders React As Another New High In Daily COVID-19 Cases Occurs

ISDH

THE LATEST: Based on the latest figures released by the Indiana State Dept. of Health, on July 16th, St. Joseph County saw its highest number of new daily COVID-19 cases yet. The county reported 68 new cases on Thursday. 

This week in a four-day time span from July 12-July 16, the county has logged three of its highest daily case counts since the pandemic began. On July 12 there were 63 new cases and on July 14 there were 58 new cases. 

Dr. Mark Fox with the St. Joe Co. Health Dept. says he attributes some of the rise to large gatherings and the State of Indiana moving to Stage 4.5 in reopening. He says he is thankful the state paused and did not move to Stage 5. He says two new testing sites have been set up at St. Adalbert and at WUBS. "This is a very worrisome trend for the county," he adds. 

"What a difference two weeks makes," says Mayor James Mueller of South Bend.

"We have the highest rolling average we have had throughout the pandemic and there is no end in sight... we are set to be on course for a very difficult August," Mueller adds.

"So August right now looks on pace to be one of the worst months, if not *the* worst month, throughout the whole pandemic," Mueller said.

Fox says the county still has the hospital infrastructure to handle this but he says it is "not the trajectory we want to be on as we contemplate bringing kids back for K-12 school" and having university students return. 

The county currently has a total of 2,389 cases and 72 deaths. The positivity rate for testing in the county is 7.4% which is lower than the rate for Indiana as a whole which is 9.4%.

St. Joe Commissioner Andy Kostielney is encouraging the Health Dept. to publicly shame organizations that are not complying with the face mask mandate.

EARLIER POST:  

On Tuesday, July 14th St. Joseph County saw its second highest number of new daily COVID-19 cases reported since the pandemic began. 59 new cases were reported Tuesday. This follows a spike that occurred Sunday, July 12th when 63 new cases were reported. 

Today the St. Joseph Co. Health Dept. issued the following statement: 

As of today, the county’s total number of confirmed cases is at 2,288. The seven-day rolling average of new cases per day is 39.7- the highest we have had throughout the pandemic. Currently we have 436 “active” positive cases in the last 2 weeks.

ORIGINAL POST:

Monday as the Indiana State Dept. of Health released new COVID-19 stats reflecting data from Sun., July 12th, St. Joseph Co. saw another spike. The county reported 63 new cases Sunday. Just this past Friday (July 10) the county hit its previous highest single day case count with 53 new cases. 

ORIGINAL POST:

Credit ISDH

According to statistics released Saturday by the Indiana State Dept. of Health (ISDH) St. Joseph County saw its largest single day COVID-19 case tally yet. On Friday the county reported 55 cases. Previously, the highest single day number of cases came back on April 16 when the county logged 46 new daily cases. In total, St. Joseph County has 2,106 cases and has seen 69 deaths. The county's positivity rate for testing is 7.2% which is still below the statewide positivity rate of 9.2 %.

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