Jay shifts to yellow

After 10 consecutive weeks at the state’s lowest level of risk for the spread of coronavirus, the county has bumped back up.

Jay County was rated “yellow” (moderate risk for the spread of coronavirus) in Wednesday’s update from Indiana State Department of Health.

The only county in the state that remained “blue” (low risk) was Randolph.

Jay County saw significant increases in the two statistics the state department of health uses to calculate risk levels. Its cases per 100,000 residents came in at 102 this week, up from 44 last week. Its 7-day positivity rate was 7.07%, more than triple the 2.21% rate from a week ago.

There had already been an uptick in COVID-19 cases locally last week with 14 confirmed between July 28 and Aug. 3. That pattern has continued, with 31 new cases from Aug. 4 through 10, including 16 Monday and Tuesday. With 38 new cases in the first 10 days of the month, the county is on pace to record the most in a month since having 215 in January. (It is also on pace to more than double August 2020’s total of 50 cases.)

The local increase mirrors the trend in both the state and the nation.

A week ago, the state had just one county rated “red” (high risk) with 29 “orange” (moderate risk), 49 yellow and 13 blue. This week, the numbers shifted to eight red, 43 orange, 40 yellow and only Randolph County blue.

Statewide hospitalizations continue to climb as well. After being below 400 in late June and early July and at 900 this week, the total is now hovering around 1,300.

The numbers of positive cases and hospitalizations are still only about a third of what they were at their peak in late fall and early winter 2020, both are climbing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to encourage vaccination as the most effective way to reduce the spread of COVID-19. On Wednesday, the CDC urged pregnant women to get vaccinated, citing increasing numbers of unvaccinated mothers-to-be seriously ill with the virus.

"The vaccines are safe and effective, and it has never been more urgent to increase vaccinations as we face the highly transmissible delta variant and see severe outcomes from COVID-19 among unvaccinated pregnant people,’’ CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.

The CDC also notes that “vaccines authorized in the United States are highly effective at preventing severe disease and death, including against the Delta variant.” The Delta variant, the CDC says, is about twice as contagious as previous strains of coronavirus.

Vaccination clinics in Jay County are available at Jay County Health Department, CVS in both Portland and Dunkirk, and Walgreens in Portland.

As of Tuesday, 6,268 individuals in Jay County — about 36.8% of those eligible, which is up 0.6 percentage points from last week — have been fully vaccinated. About 2.99 million Hoosiers have been fully vaccinated.

Indiana is not currently under any coronavirus-related restrictions, though the state remains under a health emergency through at least Aug. 31. (The health emergency has been in effect since March 2020.) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing a mask indoors for those who are in an area of “substantial or high transmission.”

Coronavirus is mainly spread through respiratory droplets or small particles from an infected person coughing, sneezing, talking or breathing. The CDC reports that it may be possible those particles and droplets remain suspended in the air for an unknown period and travel beyond 6 feet, especially indoors. The virus causes a range of symptoms, including fever and shortness of breath, which can appear two to 14 days after exposure.