COVID falling

The numbers keep coming down.

Jay County stayed in the blue range (low risk for spread of coronavirus) for the third consecutive week in the Indiana State Department of Health update Wednesday and continued to see improvement in COVID-19 statistics.

“We’re definitely doing well and hopefully we can continue to do the things that got us there, continue to have more and more people get vaccinated,” said Heath Butz. “Hopefully we’ll fill out our clinic times and get as many Jay County residents, and surrounding counties, in here as we can.”

Also Wednesday, the state made coronavirus vaccinations available to Hoosiers 50 and older. That change came just a day after it had dropped the age requirement to 55. Before Tuesday, vaccines were available only to those 60 and older in Indiana.

The local statistics went down for both metrics the state department of health uses to determine the county rankings.

Jay County’s weekly cases per 100,000 residents was down to 24 after coming in at 34 last week. It was at 146 just three weeks ago.

Its positivity rate dropped to 1.87%, down from 2.24% a week ago. It had been above 20% at the height of the pandemic.

Jay County had just 57 reported cases of COVID-19 in February. That’s down from 215 in January and the high of 684 November. 

The county’s four new cases of COVID-19 reported Tuesday was the highest in a single day since Feb. 8.

Although the numbers have improved significantly, Butz continued to emphasize the importance of precautions as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those include wearing a mask, social distancing, frequent hand washing, avoiding large crowds and staying home when sick.

“There’s that fear that if we let our guard down and with some of these new variant strains coming in that we could see a bounce back if we don’t keep to the measures,” he said.

Butz also encouraged residents to make use of the county’s three vaccination clinics — at Jay County Health Department, IU Health Jay and Walmart.

The vaccination at the health department runs 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, and the clinic at the hospital has appointments from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Those clinics have been using the Moderna vaccine, but IU Health Jay is in the process of switching to Pfizer. The Pfizer vaccine must be stored at ultra-low temperatures — minus-76 to minus-112 degrees. IU Health Jay recently received a storage unit — it is on loan from the state at no coast to the hospital — that meets those requirements. The change is intended to stabilize the vaccine chain.

Those interested in making an appointment can do so online at ourshot.in.gov or by calling the state’s 2-1-1 telephone assistance service.

Nearly 3,000 first doses of coronavirus vaccine have been administered in Jay County thus far with more than 1,500 fully vaccinated.

Statewide, 1.03 million have received their first dose with more than 608,000 fully vaccinated.

Clinics in counties adjacent to Jay are at Adams Memorial Hospital in Decatur, Adams County Health Department, Kroger in Decatur, Wells County Health Department, IU Health Blackford, Blackford County Health Department, Randolph County Health Department and the Walmart store in Winchester.

There are 10 sites in Delaware County including IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital and Delaware County Health Department.

For the first time in months, Indiana had no counties rated orange (high) or red (severe). More than half of the state’s counties — 51 — were rated blue with the remaining 41 yellow (moderate).

Blackford, Delaware and Randolph counties were all rated blue while Adams and Wells counties were yellow.

Gov. Eric Holcomb said Wednesday that he plans to keep the state’s mask mandate in place rather than following some other states, including Texas, that have lifted restrictions. It is currently in effect through March 31.

“We just need to do it looking at Indiana numbers, not Texas, not Mississippi, not Nebraska, not Vermont,” Holcomb said Wednesday. “I’m on the phone with all these governors, they’re all very respected voices in the country, but I’ll continue to focus on what’s going on in Indiana, not around the country.”

Coronavirus is mainly spread through respiratory droplets or small particles from an infected person coughing, sneezing, talking or breathing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that it may be possible those particles and droplets remain suspended in the air for an unknown period of time and travel beyond 6 feet, especially indoors.

The virus causes a range of symptoms, which can appear two to 14 days after exposure. Older adults and those with pre-existing health problems are susceptible to more severe illnesses.