On the increase

The county is orange again.

It is trending toward red.

For the eighth straight week, Jay County was rated “orange” (high risk for the spread for coronavirus) in Wednesday’s updated from Indiana State Department of Health.

The county also had two more deaths from COVID-19 confirmed Tuesday, bringing the total during the pandemic to 41.

After numbers the state department of health uses to determine county risk had been stable for several weeks, both went up significantly this week.

Jay County’s cases per 100,000 residents jumped to 455 this week, up from 352 last week. The number had been in the mid-300s for most of September. It had been in single digits as recently as late July.

The local seven-day positivity rate jumped to 14%, just one percentage point below the threshold for pushing the county to “red” (extreme risk). The number had hovered around 10% for the last few weeks. The rate had climbed to 14.9% as of Tuesday. (County risk ratings released each Wednesday are based on Sunday’s statistics.)

The county’s new case numbers have reached double digits eight of the last nine days.

After averaging less than one new confirmed case of COVID-19 per day in June and July, totals in Jay County have jumped significantly in the last two months. The county had 273 new cases of COVID-19 in August for an average of 8.8 per day. There were 350 new cases — the third-highest total during the pandemic, trailing only November 2020 and December 2020 — in September for an average of 11.7 per day. (That’s five times as many cases as September 2020.)

Most of Indiana continued to be rated orange this week, with 76 of the state’s 92 counties falling into that category. (Adams, Wells, Blackford, Delaware and Randolph counties were all orange.) Eight were rated red and eight were “yellow” (moderate risk).

Area hospitalizations for COVID-19 have continued to come down after peaking at 391 about three weeks ago. District 6, which includes Jay County, reported 222 hospitalizations as of Tuesday.

Vaccination continues to be the best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Clinics in Jay County are available at Jay County Health Department, Walgreens in Portland and CVS in both Portland and Dunkirk.

Jay County continues to rank sixth-lowest in vaccination rate among Indiana’s 92 counties. According to the CDC, 41.1% of those 12 and older in the county have been vaccinated. That’s up by 2.8 percentage points since early September.

The CDC also recommends wearing a mask indoors for those who are in an area of “substantial or high transmission,” which includes Jay County.