Tag: COVID-19

COVID-19 update: Case numbers steady but hospitalizations up, more vaxxed patients than not

IU Health chart
IU Health chart
IU Health chart
Centers for Disease Control chart
Centers for Disease Control map

Friday’s news conference of leaders in the Bloomington area is one indicator that the local spread of COVID-19 virus is up.

It was the first such news conference since March, a time when IU Health south central region president Brian Shockney described a “sense of calm” after two years of pandemic.

At the time, just two patients at IU Health south central region hospitals had diagnoses for COVID-19.

On Friday, Shockney reported a total of 31 patients who were diagnosed with the virus at IU Health’s hospitals in Bloomington, Bedford and Paoli.

Shockney said, “Over the last 90 days, we have seen a continued increase in our inpatients.” He added, “With the workforce shortages across the state, and nation along with the highly complex care that our patients require, it’s difficult to provide care for all those who need it.”

The number of cases has remained pretty steady for the last three months and would qualify as “low” community spread under the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) categories.

But the number of hospitalizations has pushed Monroe County to the CDC “medium” level of community spread. Continue reading “COVID-19 update: Case numbers steady but hospitalizations up, more vaxxed patients than not” →

Wastewater COVID-19 testing: Google affiliate to pay Bloomington utilities for samples

Data sourced from: https://bloomington.data.socrata.com/Utilities-Water/City-of-Bloomington-Sars-CoV-2-COVID-19-Wastewater/yv82-z42g/data
Data sourced from: https://bloomington.data.socrata.com/Utilities-Water/City-of-Bloomington-Sars-CoV-2-COVID-19-Wastewater/yv82-z42g/data
Screenshot from https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

For the next year, city of Bloomington utilities (CBU) will be getting $150 per sample of wastewater that it sends to Verily Life Science for COVID-19 testing.

Bloomington’s utilities service board (USB) approved the arrangement at its regular meeting on Monday.

Under the agreement, CBU will be sending three samples a week to the California-based company through Aug. 1, 2023, with the possibility of a one-year extension.

Responding to board questions, CBU’s James Hall, who is assistant director of environmental programs, said that CBU would have access to all of the data collected, but would not have control over its publication by Verily.

Verily is a company held by Alphabet, which is the company under which Google was reorganized in 2015. Verily describes itself as a “company bringing the promise of precision health to everyone, every day.” Continue reading “Wastewater COVID-19 testing: Google affiliate to pay Bloomington utilities for samples” →

COVID-19 pandemic notebook: Monroe County now classified as “low” spread

Downloaded from CDC website on July 25, 2022.
Charted out on July 25, 2022.
Downloaded from CDC website on July 25, 2022.

The latest COVID-19 map from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows Monroe County, Indiana, as having “low” community spread of the pandemic virus.

That comes after the county spent some time a few weeks ago in the “medium” classification, based on the number of new hospital admissions.

Monroe County qualifies as having “low” community spread in part because the case rate per 100,000 population is 137. That’s less than 200, the threshold above which the county would be bumped into the “medium” category, according to the CDC scoring metric.

Also qualifying the county as in the “low” category of community spread are the 6.5 new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 population—which is below the threshold of 10 admissions per 100,000. And the percentage of staffed inpatient beds in use by patients with confirmed COVID-19 is 8.2 percent, which is below the threshold of 10 percent. Continue reading “COVID-19 pandemic notebook: Monroe County now classified as “low” spread” →

Pandemic update: Steady climb for Monroe County COVID-19 cases, CDC rubric says spread still low

The number of daily COVID-19 cases recorded in Monroe County continues a steady climb.

But guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) still peg the community spread of the virus at a “low” level—which is the lowest of its three categories (low, medium, and high).

The rolling daily average of COVID-19 cases in Monroe County has risen steadily, if not dramatically, from about 5 cases a day at the beginning of April to around 26 cases now, at the end of the month.

Hospitalizations in Monroe County remain low. Indiana’s Health District 8, which is made up of 7 counties including Monroe, had a census of 7 COVID-19 patients on Friday.  That compares to more than 170 at the peak of the pandemic.

But the 7 patients on Friday compare to just three on Monday. District 8 includes Monroe, Brown, Bartholomew, Lawrence, Jackson, Orange and Washington counties. Continue reading “Pandemic update: Steady climb for Monroe County COVID-19 cases, CDC rubric says spread still low” →

COVID-19 pandemic notebook: Cases have bumped up a bit, hospitalizations still low

The number of COVID-19 cases in Monroe County was up last week, but they might be showing signs that they’re settling back down.

That’s the word from the state’s Monday dashboard update, and confirmed to The B Square by Monroe County health administrator Penny Caudill. Continue reading “COVID-19 pandemic notebook: Cases have bumped up a bit, hospitalizations still low” →

Bloomington pandemic update: A “sense of calm” as COVID-19 case numbers subside

Just two COVID-19 patients are currently being treated in IU Health hospitals across the health provider’s south central region, which includes Bloomington, Bedford and Paoli.

Both of those patients are at Bloomington’s new hospital, according to Brian Shockney, who is president of IU Health’s south central region. Shockney was speaking at Friday’s biweekly news conference of local leaders on pandemic response.

Shockney described a change in atmosphere at IU Health’s Bloomington hospital: “For the first time, our team was truly faced with a sense of calm this past week after these two years of pandemic.” Continue reading “Bloomington pandemic update: A “sense of calm” as COVID-19 case numbers subside” →

Updated: [Governor rescinds emergency order] Mask mandate rescinded by Monroe County health board effective after March 3

Monroe County’s indoor mask order was rescinded on a unanimous vote of the Monroe County board of health at its Thursday afternoon meeting.

The indoor mask mandate is no longer in effect after the end of March 3—at midnight between Thursday and Friday. The mandate is connected with an effort to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic virus.

The board of health replaced the mandate with a series of strong recommendations on mask wearing, vaccination, cautions about gathering sizes, and posting of signs by businesses encouraging wearing of masks.

Among the sample signs for businesses shown to board of health members were some that promoted the message: Be nice to people who are wearing masks.

Businesses can still insist that their customers wear masks. Continue reading “Updated: [Governor rescinds emergency order] Mask mandate rescinded by Monroe County health board effective after March 3” →

Pandemic notebook: Adjusted daily data shows downward (and upward) trends a smidgen earlier

Numbers reported in all categories related to the COVID-19 pandemic continue to decline.

A change to the way the state of Indiana is reporting daily case totals hasn’t changed the shape of the trends. Continue reading “Pandemic notebook: Adjusted daily data shows downward (and upward) trends a smidgen earlier” →

Pandemic notebook: Declining case numbers give momentum for lifting restrictions

The Monday update to Indiana’s COVID-19 data dashboard confirmed the trend in declining positive case numbers and hospital census statewide.

Also in Monroe County the downward trend continued, as the rolling daily average of positive cases dropped to 37. That’s still about twice the rolling average at this same time last year. But it’s just one-eighth the rolling average posted by Monroe County a month ago, on Jan. 21.

Hospitalizations statewide are down, too. The statewide hospital census of COVID-19 patients now stands at 1,093. That’s less than a third of the peak number on Jan. 13, which was 3,519.

It’s a similar picture for Hospital District 8, which includes Monroe County. The District 8 COVID-19 census is now 64 patients compared to 171 a month ago. Besides Monroe County, District 8 includes Brown, Bartholomew, Lawrence, Jackson, Orange, and Washington counties.

The improving trends after the surge, caused by the Omicron variant of the virus, has helped add momentum to sentiment in favor of lifting of various restrictions.

It’s not certain, but among B Square sources, Indiana governor Eric Holcomb is not expected to extend his current emergency order, which currently is set to expire on March 4. Continue reading “Pandemic notebook: Declining case numbers give momentum for lifting restrictions” →

Pandemic notebook: Decline in positive cases continues with slight hitch

Monroe County’s confirmed positive COVID-19 numbers continue their rapid decrease, after a spike that saw them go up just about as fast.

That matches the trend across the state of Indiana.

Also showing a similar pattern for the county and the whole state is a hitch in the decrease for the rolling 7-day average of daily cases.

For Monroe County, the rolling average for the last five days has been stuck between 65 and 70 cases a day.

That’s a wrinkle that could be a side effect of the snowstorm that shut down many testing facilities on Feb. 3 and Feb. 4, just before the weekend. That could have led to a delay in testing or reports of tests until the following Monday and Tuesday, bumping the numbers for those two days, which are still a part of the current rolling daily average. Continue reading “Pandemic notebook: Decline in positive cases continues with slight hitch” →