St. Joseph, Starke and LaGrange counties have dropped to the lowest risk “blue” category on Indiana’s COVID-19 tracking map. The last time any area counties were in the “blue” was seven months ago at the start of August 2021.
All other WVPE listener counties are in the “yellow” category, which indicates moderate spread of the virus.
And the situation has greatly improved statewide. Six weeks ago, all 92 Indiana counties were in the “red,” which indicates unchecked community spread of the virus. But now, none are for the first time since August 2021.
Sixty-five Indiana counties — the majority — are now “yellow,” but 22 are “blue” and only five are “orange,” indicating high spread of the virus.
COVID-19 cases also continue to decrease. On Monday, the state reported just 255, a 98.5 percent decrease from the one-day case record of 17,489 on Jan. 20. But the state has also now passed more than 22,000 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Hospitalizations have continued decreasing in Healthcare District Two, which covers most of the WVPE listening area.
As of Tuesday, there were 57 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and 32.1 percent of area ICU beds were available, 11.1 percentage points better than the statewide average of 21 percent.
Only 2.8 percent of area ICU beds are occupied by COVID patients.
According to Indiana’s vaccine dashboard, 56.6 percent of Hoosiers aged 5 and older and 60.6 percent of Hoosiers aged 12 and older are fully vaccinated.
In addition, 46.6 percent of fully vaccinated Hoosiers have received COVID-19 booster shots.
But vaccination rates still vary widely by zip code.
According to new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control, vaccinated and unvaccinated residents of counties with “high” risk should wear masks indoors. Locally, that only applies to Berrien and Cass counties in Michigan.
Contact Jakob at jlazzaro@wvpe.org or follow him on Twitter at @JakobLazzaro.
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