Jay stays yellow

For the second straight week, the county’s risk for spreading coronavirus is “moderate.”

Jay County came in at “yellow” again this week in the metrics Indiana State Department of Health updated Wednesday.

It marks the first time since the county moved to “red” (severe risk) in late October that it has come in at yellow for consecutive weeks. It had fluctuated between yellow and orange (high risk) since mid-December.

Jay County hit another milestone this week, showing no new cases of COVID-19 Sunday. It marked the first day with no new cases since Oct. 6. It’s been 20 days since the county has recorded double-digit new cases with 15 on Jan. 20. And the county is averaging 4.1 new cases per day thus far this month, the lowest since averaging 2.3 in September.

Though consecutive weeks rated yellow is a positive step for the county, Jay County Health Department’s Heath Butz noted that, like on a traffic light, the color still requires caution.

“I think it’s good news, but again we don’t want to let our guard down,” he said. “We were real close to being in the orange again. We’re still kind of hovering that line between orange and yellow. But it’s good that we’re not going up and we were able to maintain it for consecutive weeks.”

The local positivity rate came in at 9.77%, up from 8.43% last week but just short of the 10% threshold what would have pushed the county back to orange (high risk). The county’s cases per 100,000 residents dropped to 146, down from 190 last week and the lowest mark since October.

For Jay County to drop to blue, either its cases per 100,000 would have to fall to fewer than 10 or its positivity rate would need to fall to less than 5%.

Indiana showed improvement across the board, with 50 counties yellow, 40 orange and only one — Switzerland — at red. (Fifty-nine counties were orange last week and four were red.) One county — Starke — dropped all the way to blue (low risk).

Adams, Wells, Delaware and Randolph counties were all yellow this week. Blackford County was the only one in the area to come in at orange.

Jay County currently has two coronavirus vaccination clinics — one at the health department and the other at IU Health Jay — and Butz said local efforts are going well.

They run on alternating days, with the hospital’s clinic from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and the health department’s clinic from 11:15 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well as 8:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Saturdays. (Butz noted that as of 5 p.m. Wednesday the health department still had appointments available for today and Saturday.) Those interested in signing up can do so online at ourshot.in.gov or by calling the state’s 2-1-1 telephone assistance service.

Clinics in adjacent counties are at Adams County Hospital, Adams County Health Department, Wells County Health Department, IU Health Blackford, Blackford County Health Department and Randolph County Health Department, as well as eight sites in Delaware County including IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital, Delaware County Health Department and several pharmacies.

In Indiana, the vaccine is currently available to those 65 and older. (State officials said Wednesday that they plan to open the vaccine to those 60 and older “as soon as possible.”)

Butz noted that vaccinations and precautions — mask wearing, social distancing, hand washing, avoiding large crowds and staying home when sick — continue to be vital, especially as some of the variants of coronavirus that are known to be more contagious have been identified in Indiana.

“If that starts getting going, it’s going to be spread more easily,” he said. “It’s important that we keep up these efforts. It’s important that everybody comes in and gets vaccinated when they’re eligible so that we can get as many people protected as possible.”

Thus far, 2,204 first doses have been administered in Jay County. (Those numbers do not necessarily reflect the number of local residents vaccinated, as any eligible Hoosier can be vaccinated at any clinic in the state.) About 736,500 — almost 11% of the population — have received their first dose statewide.