Tag: surge

Sheer number of COVID-19 cases has health care system struggling

Image distributed by IU Health.

The rolling average of positive COVID-19 cases in Monroe County now stands at about 152 per day. That’s almost twice the average this time last year. It’s also about 1.5 times the previous pandemic high point for the county, which came in November 2021.

It’s the same picture across all of Indiana. The rolling average of positive cases across the Hoosier state is 10,227, nearly twice the 5,500 average daily cases at this time last year.

Even if the infections caused by the Omicron variant of the virus might be comparatively milder, it’s their sheer number, and the likelihood of spread to vulnerable populations, that is still putting more people in the hospital. And that’s putting a continued strain on statewide and local health systems.

President of IU Health’s south central region, Brian Shockney, put it this way at a news conference of local leaders held Friday: “Omicron is hitting a high number of people and spreading fast to those immunocompromised patients. And they are what we can see in the initial stages here are getting hospitalized.”

Shockney continued, “IU Health is caring for its highest number of patients of the pandemic to date.” He added, “70 percent of these patients are unvaccinated.”

For the watching public, Shockney repeated what has become a kind of mantra: “Get vaccinated. Get boosted. Get tested.” Continue reading “Sheer number of COVID-19 cases has health care system struggling” →

COVID-19 update: Confirmed cases, hospitalizations same level as last year, Holcomb looks for help convincing Hoosiers to get jabbed

At a Wednesday afternoon news conference, Indiana governor Eric Holcomb announced he had extended his emergency health order another month.

It allows local units of government to impose their own more restrictive regulations to try to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus. But the governor’s order does not itself include restrictions like a mask mandate.

Joining Holcomb at the news conference were Lindsay Weaver, the chief medical officer for Indiana’s department of health, and Kristina Box, the state’s health commissioner.

Box delivered a grim outlook at roughly the one-year mark for the arrival of the first COVID-19 vaccines in Indiana. “We once again are facing a very bleak situation with this pandemic. Our COVID-19 hospital census is at the highest level in an entire year,” Box said.

Despite the availability of the vaccine for a year, the situation now looks a lot like last year. Continue reading “COVID-19 update: Confirmed cases, hospitalizations same level as last year, Holcomb looks for help convincing Hoosiers to get jabbed” →

Monroe County sees COVID-19 cases rise: “…could be our worst surge yet—it’s terrible.”

At Friday’s news conference of local leaders on COVID-19 pandemic response, Bloomington mayor John Hamilton reacted to the relatively positive picture that Indiana University health officer Aaron Carroll had just painted about the situation on campus.

“I’m really just echoing what Dr. Carroll said, which is: Probably one of the safest places to be is on campus. And that their experience is different from the experience of the community as a whole.”

The difference between the world of the campus and the broader community was something Carroll was quick to confirm. Carroll said, “I completely agree.” Carroll added, “Indiana is in a surge, there is no question. And looks like it could be our worst surge yet—it’s terrible.”

One measure of the increasing level of concern about pandemic trends was the fact that Friday’s news conference was held at all. It was supposed to be an off week in the every-other-week schedule of media calls. Continue reading “Monroe County sees COVID-19 cases rise: “…could be our worst surge yet—it’s terrible.”” →

COVID-19 pandemic notebook: Surge means orange for Monroe County

Based on numbers reported Monday, Wednesday’s update to the state of Indiana’s COVID-19 dashboard map will show Monroe County as orange.

That’s because the county will have the next-to-worst score on the dual-metric system used by the state to color-code the map.

For the week ending Sunday, Dec. 5, Monroe County logged a total of 415 positive COVID-19 cases.

That puts the weekly per-100,000 population figure for Monroe County at 279.

Because it’s over 200, it lands the county in the worst of the categories for the per-100,000 metric. That’s one of two stats used by Indiana’s health department to track the level of community transmission. The worst category carries a score of 3 on the 0-to-3 scale. Continue reading “COVID-19 pandemic notebook: Surge means orange for Monroe County” →

Post-Thanksgiving pandemic surge continues in Monroe County: “Vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate!”

Indiana University health officer Aaron Carroll’s message on Friday wrapped up like this: “The best thing we can all keep doing is vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate!”

Carroll was speaking at Friday’s biweekly press conference on COVID-19 pandemic response held by local city and county leaders.

Vaccination locations are listed out on searchable map maintained by the state’s department of health.

Even on IU’s Bloomington campus, where almost 95 percent of the university population is vaccinated, the positive case tally for the week ending Dec. 1 was 89. That’s about four times the weekly number that the campus was seeing through the month of October.

For all of Monroe County, the weekly total from Nov. 25 through Dec. 1 was 275.

The countywide daily positive case numbers reported for Wednesday and Thursday were 91 and 74. Monroe County has not seen daily case numbers that high since early January.

Continue reading “Post-Thanksgiving pandemic surge continues in Monroe County: “Vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate!”” →

Monroe County positive COVID-19 cases may be leveling off at high numbers, new testing site announced

The heights of the two red lines are set at 21.2 and 42.4 cases per day, which correspond to 100 and 200 cases per week per 100,000 residents in the county. Those are the benchmarks for the color-coded system used by the state to measure community spread.
The heights of the two red lines are set at 21.2 and 42.4 cases per day, which correspond to 100 and 200 cases per week per 100,000 residents in the county. Those are the benchmarks for the color-coded system used by the state to measure community spread.

In Monroe County, the numbers of positive COVID-19 cases, and hospitalized patients are still high.

That news was buffered a bit on Friday by an announcement from county health administrator Penny Caudill about a local testing center. It was hoped to launch at the beginning of the month, and it’s finally set to open next Tuesday (Sept. 21).

Initial hours at the 500 N. Profile Parkway test site will run initially Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Results from the drive-through PCR tests are supposed to be available by 5 p.m. the following day, according to Caudill.

The 69 positive tests reported for Monroe County with the state dashboard’s Friday’s noon update were the biggest number in about eight months, when 77 cases were recorded on Jan. 20.

On Thursday, the city of Bloomington reported six COVID-19 cases among its employees for the week. That is the highest weekly total of city worker cases since mid-December of 2020, when eight employees tested positive for the pandemic virus between Dec. 8 and Dec. 12. Continue reading “Monroe County positive COVID-19 cases may be leveling off at high numbers, new testing site announced” →

Pandemic surges in Monroe County like rest of Indiana, full approval of Pfizer’s jab means extra encouragement to get vaccine

The height of the red line is at 21.2 cases a day. That’s the daily average below which Monroe County needs to stay in order to remain in the “yellow” category for weekly cases per 100,000 residents, in the state’s dual-metric classification scheme.

At Wednesday’s regular meeting of Monroe County commissioners, county health administrator Penny Caudill briefed the three electeds on the current status of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Positive cases continue to trend upward in Monroe County, in the state, and across the country, she reported.

But Monday’s full approval of Pfizer’s vaccine by the US Food and Drug Administration could mean that one concern people have cited about getting vaccinated will be relieved, Caudill said. That concern relates to the fact that the vaccine had up to now been administered only under an emergency use provision.

Pfizer’s vaccine is now branded as Comirnaty.

Monroe County’s fraction of those age 12 and over who have been vaccinated is still just 58.3 percent

Caudill pointed to Indiana’s vaccine website as a resource for finding a place to get vaccinated. Continue reading “Pandemic surges in Monroe County like rest of Indiana, full approval of Pfizer’s jab means extra encouragement to get vaccine” →

As COVID-19 surges again, Monroe County health administrator says “Be kind to others even when you disagree.”

For Monroe County health administrator Penny Caudill, kindness is part of the key to dealing with the current resurgence of COVID-19 cases.

At Friday’s regular news conference of local leaders, Caudill sketched out the rise in the basic pandemic stats and the relatively low vaccination rates.

She then made an appeal to kindness: “You can be part of the solution to this. Be kind to others even when you disagree.” Caudill continued, “Be kind to the workers doing their jobs. Wear your mask as required, and if requested. Stay at home if you’re sick, get tested as appropriate.”

Caudill wrapped up: “So please be kind. And we want people to get vaccinated.” Caudill said, the best place to find information about times and locations of vaccination clinics is still at ourshot.in.gov

The vaccination rate among eligible Monroe County residents is still only about 57.2 percent, well short of the 70 percent that was batted around as a target in the early days of vaccination.

That target has risen as the more infectious Delta variant has spread. Of the positive tests that have been genetically sequenced in the last four weeks statewide, 83 percent were determined to be caused by the Delta variant, according to the Indiana state department of health dashboard. Continue reading “As COVID-19 surges again, Monroe County health administrator says “Be kind to others even when you disagree.”” →

Saturday update: Indiana’s 8,427 COVID-19 cases almost 2K more than previous daily high

Monroe County’s new testing site across the B-Line Trail from the Seminary Kroger store,  is due to open Monday, Nov. 16, 2020. Currently planned hours are: 8 a.m. – 3 pm on Monday and Wednesdays, 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays and 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. on the first and third Saturdays of the month. [press release] Walk-ins will not be accepted. Residents who want to be tested at the new site are required to register and make an appointment through an online portal before arrival.
On Saturday, the state of Indiana’s COVID-19 dashboard logged 8,427 new confirmed cases, which was easily a new daily high since the pandemic started.

It’s 1,851 more cases than the previous daily high, just two days before.

The peak daily confirmed case high during Indiana’s spring surge was almost an order of magnitude lower: 946 on April 26.

In Monroe County, the 112 new cases recorded on the dashboard put the rolling 7-day daily average number of cases at 64. That’s about two and a half times the number of confirmed cases averaged through most of October.

Increased positivity rates, across the state and locally, show that it’s not just the increased number of tests that accounts for the increased number of cases. Monroe County’s 7-day rolling average of positive tests is now sitting at about 5.1 percent. The statewide number is more than twice that, at 10.9 percent. Continue reading “Saturday update: Indiana’s 8,427 COVID-19 cases almost 2K more than previous daily high” →

Monroe County COVID-19 cases continue to surge, hospital numbers up, zero deaths for nearly a month

Sunday’s noon update of the State of Indiana’s COVID-19 dashboard showed no additional COVID-19 deaths in Monroe County. That’s two days shy of a month since the county’s last COVID-19 death was recorded, on June 21.

But the dashboard showed that a recent surge in positive cases continues unabated. More than two dozen cases each day were logged on Friday and Saturday.

The previous high had been 18 cases. That brings the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Monroe County to 472.

Last week, some uncertainty about future testing capacity was raised by state and local officials. Continue reading “Monroe County COVID-19 cases continue to surge, hospital numbers up, zero deaths for nearly a month” →