All but five Indiana counties are in the lowest-risk “blue” category on the state’s COVID-19 tracking map. The last time so few Indiana counties were in the “blue” was nine months ago in June 2021.
But Starke and Fulton counties are one of the five Hoosier counties in the “yellow” category, which indicates moderate spread of the virus. Fulton was in the “yellow” last week, and Starke joined it this week.
But statewide, no counties are in the more serious color categories. This is the third week in a row with no “orange” counties, indicating high spread of the virus, and the fourth with no “red” counties, indicating unchecked community spread.
Nine weeks ago, all 92 Indiana counties were in the “red.”
And new statewide COVID-19 cases have remained low. On Monday, the state reported just 202, just under a 99 percent decrease from the one-day case record of 18,898 on Jan. 10.
Hospitalizations remain low in Healthcare District Two, which covers most of the WVPE listening area.
As of Tuesday, there were just 19 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, down from 37 on March 15. Currently, 30.3 percent of area ICU beds are available — about 7 percentage points better than last week, and 9.2 percentage points better than the statewide average of 21.1 percent.
Just under 1 percent of area ICU beds are occupied by COVID patients.
According to Indiana’s vaccine dashboard, 56.8 percent of Hoosiers aged 5 and older and 60.7 percent of Hoosiers aged 12 and older are fully vaccinated.
In addition, 46.9 percent of fully vaccinated Hoosiers have received COVID-19 booster shots.
But vaccination rates still vary widely by zip code.
Contact Jakob at jlazzaro@wvpe.org or follow him on Twitter at @JakobLazzaro.
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