Jay stays orange, barely

The county stayed orange this week.

Barely.

Jay County was rated “orange” (high risk for the spread of coronavirus) in Wednesday’s update from Indiana State Department of Health as it came in just under the positivity rate threshold that would have bumped it up to “red” (extreme risk).

The county also had its 33rd COVID-related death Monday, its first since May 26.

The local seven-day positivity rate — it is one of two metrics measure by the state to determine risk levels — increased again to 14.7%, up from 11.63% last week and 2.21% just three weeks ago. But that left it just short of the 15% threshold that would have shifted the county to red.

Jay County’s cases per 100,000 residents were also up again, coming in at 371 this week. That is an increase from 298 last week and 44 just three weeks ago.

With 192 new cases of COVID-19 this month, Jay County is on pace for nearly five times as many as last August. The county’s 83 new cases from Aug. 15 through Aug. 21 are the most for any seven-day period in 2021.

In response to the recent increase in cases, Indiana State Department of Health will host a free COVID-19 testing and vaccination clinic from noon to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the parking lot at Walmart, 950 W. Votaw St., Portland.

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

The state risk map remained essentially the same as the previous week, with 69 counties rated either orange or red. (Seventy-three were rated orange or red last week.) Nine, including all along the northern border with the exception of Steuben, were “yellow” (moderate risk). Adams, Wells, Blackford, Delaware and Randolph counties were all rated orange.

Totals were up, with Indiana reporting more than 5,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in a single day for the first time since early January. The state had 5,037 new cases Tuesday, and its seven-day average case total was 3,529, up from 2,686 just a week ago and below 200 in June.

Indiana’s hospitalization total has increased to 2,048. (That number was less than 400 in June. The peak was 3,381 in November.)

As of Tuesday, 6,429 individuals in Jay County — about 37.8% of those 12 and older — have been fully vaccinated. About 3.07 million Hoosiers have been fully vaccinated.

Indiana is not currently under any coronavirus-related restrictions, though the state remains under a health emergency. (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,” which now includes Jay County.

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.