All but one county experiencing high COVID-19 spread

INDIANAPOLIS — Ninety-one of Indiana’s 92 counties are seeing high or very spread of COVID-19, including all of northeast Indiana, as the virus continues to circulate widely across the state.

LaGrange County worsened into an orange rating this week while DeKalb County came back to orange after spending a single week in the worst red rating last week, as local counties continue to see high case counts and high positivity.

It’s the 11th consecutive week that statewide county ratings worsened, although increases in new COVID-19 have slowed a bit recently compared to big weekly increases seen across July and August.

This week, 91 counties received either an orange rating for high spread or red rating for very high spread of the virus.

The only county left in yellow, moderate spread, was Porter County in northwest Indiana.

In total, 69 counties were rated orange, an increase of one compared to a week ago, while the number of red-rated counties also increased to 22, also up one from a week ago.

It was a slight downgrade in ratings but a downgrade nonetheless, making this week the 11th-straight week that county ratings have worsened compared to the week before.

Locally, all of northeast Indiana is painted in orange ratings, as LaGrange County, one of the last holdouts, finally tipped into the orange level.

Both cases and positivity shot up, thrusting LaGrange County into orange. Cases rose to 224 per 100,000, up from 194 per 100,000 last week, while positivity rose to 11.97% from 9.59% last week.

In order to return to a yellow rating, which LaGrange County had for nine straight weeks before changing, the county would need to see cases drop below 200 per 100,000 and positivity needs to fall below 10% again.

Elsewhere in the region, DeKalb County fell out of a red rating back to orange on account of a drop in positivity, although it still remains very close to returning to the state’s worst ratings.

Positivity dropped to 13.45%, down from 15.23% to trigger the fall back to orange. Cases remained very high, however, at 446 per 100,000, about the same as 439 per 100,000 last week.

Counties enter red when both their cases exceed 200 per 100,000 and when positivity is over 15%.

Noble and Steuben County held orange ratings for another week, with Noble showing some improvement across both metrics while Steuben worsened.

Noble County’s case count dropped to 423 per 100,000, down from 525 per 100,000 last week, and positivity declined slightly to 12.31% from 12.98% last week.

In Steuben County, cases were up at 346 per 100,000 from 332 per 100,000 last week, while positivity was also up at 9.16% from 8.18% last week.

Statewide, Indiana remains under siege by the highly infectious delta variant of COVID-19, although new cases have plateaued more recently.

The state has averaged about 4,100 cases per day over the last seven days, similar to the average daily case count two weeks back.

Hospitalizations have also hit a recent peak, falling as of Tuesday to 2,527 patients in treatment for COVID-19, down a little off a recent high of almost 2,700.

What hasn’t dropped recently, however, is the state’s death count, with Indiana averaging 41 deaths per day reported over the past seven days, which is up sharply from 25 deaths per day average two weeks back.

Deaths is usually the last indicator to move when COVID activity starts to change, as patients who get sick take days or weeks before their conditions deteriorates and they die, so deaths are likely to remain high or even increase slightly even as other metrics have started to level off.

About 55% of Indiana’s eligible population age 12 and older is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with rates lagging the statewide average in northeast Indiana.

Steuben County sits at about 46%, followed by DeKalb County at 42.5%, Noble County at 41% and LaGrange County lowest in the state at 25%.

The vast majority of new COVID-19 activity continues to occur among the state’s unvaccinated cohort, with 90% of new hospitalizations and deaths happening among those who haven’t had shots.