Jay is red

For the first time in nearly a year, Jay County is at the state’s highest risk level for the spread of coronavirus.

The county was rated “red” (extreme risk for the spread of coronavirus) in the update released Wednesday by Indiana State Department of Health.

Jay County was last rated red in the Dec. 16, 2020, update.

The move to the red classification was pushed by the county’s seven-day positivity rate, which shot up to 15.87% from 8.82% just a week earlier. (Fifteen percent is the threshold for moving to red.)

Jay County’s cases per 100,000 residents also increased to 411 this week, up from 249 a week ago.

After being “blue” (low risk) for the first half of the summer, the county moved to “yellow” (moderate risk) in early August and then “orange” (high risk) in the Aug. 17 update. It had been orange ever since — 13 consecutive weeks — until Wednesday’s update from the state department of health. (The county has now recorded 3,084 cases of COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic along with 48 deaths, the latest of which was reported Tuesday.)

Jay County looked to be trending down beginning in mid-October as it recorded single-digit new cases of COVID-19 for 15 consecutive days. That changed with 13 cases reported Nov. 3. The county had 76 cases in a span of five days from Nov. 8 through 12. There have been 79 cases in the last seven days, including the 27 Tuesday that marked the highest total since 29 on Sept. 1.

COVID-related hospitalization numbers in District 6, which includes Jay County, have followed the same pattern. They were below 130 on Nov. 6 and have since climbed back to near 200.

Following the same pattern, the state map of COVID-19 risk showed an increase in high and extreme risk this week. After 47 counties were rated orange or red a week ago, that number was up to 68 this week. (Grant, Brown, DeKalb, LaGrange and Elkhart counties joined Jay in being rated red.) Twenty-one were rated yellow, and three were rated blue.

Allen, Wells, Blackford, Delaware and Randolph counties were all rated orange.

As has been the case for nearly a year now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that vaccination is the best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The vaccines is now available to all Hoosiers 5 and older. Those 65 and older, and those at high risk, are eligible for boosters.

Jay County now has nine vaccination sites — CVS in Portland and Dunkirk, Walgreens and Walmart in Portland and Jay County Health Department, as well as IU Health Jay and its primary care provider practices.

(Vaccines for children 5 to 11 years old are available only at the health department and IU Health Jay sites.)

Jay County continues to rank sixth-lowest in vaccination rate among Indiana’s 92 counties. Its rate — it is now measured for the 5-and-older age group; it was previously measured by 12-and-older before the child vaccine was approved — is 36.8%. Marion County is highest in the state at 71.8%.