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2nd Vanderburgh County COVID-19 death is a 53-year-old man

Fifth Hamilton Pointe resident dies due to COVID-19

Thomas B. Langhorne
Evansville Courier & Press

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — A 53-year-old man is Vanderburgh County's second resident to die of COVID-19, according to the local health department.

Lynn Herr, director of the local agency's clinical and outreach division, disclosed the information about the man Friday morning in answer to an emailed question. Herr provided no further information. Vanderburgh County Health Department officials have said they will not give more information than that in COVID deaths.

News of the county's second coronavirus-related death appeared Thursday afternoon on the health department's dashboard of positive cases.

Dr. Robert K. Spear, Vanderburgh County health officer, said then that he had no information about it. Joe Gries, the health department's administrator, said he was off Thursday and could not provide information from home.

A spokeswoman for Deaconess Health System, provider to most of Vanderburgh County's hospitalized COVID-19 patients, referred inquiries to the health department.

A fifth resident at The Village at Hamilton Pointe in Newburgh died Wednesday due to COVID-19, Warrick County Coroner Sarah Seaton said.

The 81-year-old woman's death brings Warrick County's total of coronavirus-related deaths to 19, 12 of those from Signature HealthCARE in Newburgh. Two other Warrick residents have died.

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Warrick County has had a total of 116 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to the Warrick County Health Department's dashboard of local cases. Thirty-eight of those cases remain active.

The Village at Hamilton Pointe at 3800 Eli Place in Warrick County has experienced four deaths due to COVID-19 as of May 4, 2020.

The number of positive coronavirus cases in Vanderburgh County jumped by seven Thursday to 170, according to the Vanderburgh County Health Department's dashboard of local cases.

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The Indiana State Department of Health's dashboard of positive cases reports that Gibson County has had seven coronavirus cases with 209 tested and Posey County 15 with 182 tested. Neither of those counties has reported a COVID-19-related death.

Statewide, the number of cases rose by 633 to a total of 22,503 confirmed cases. The number of deaths across the state went up by 31 for a total of 1,295.

In addition, the ISDH lists another 119 probable deaths. Those are cases when a physician lists COVID-19 as a contributing cause of death but there are no positive test results recorded.

Signature HealthCARE in Newburgh, Ind., has now experienced 12 deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic as of May 4, 2020. The facility has reported, as of Friday, May 1, 2020, 41 residents and 10 staff members who had tested positive for COVID-19, 12 residents who had died and 10 positive case recoveries.

The state dashboard shows that 3,500 tests have been done in Vanderburgh County and 803 in Warrick. But that is not a complete count. Neither the ISDH nor Vanderburgh County dashboards include up-to-the-minute testing numbers.

Statewide, 124,782 tests have been reported, of which 18 percent have been positive. 

The Vanderburgh County Health Department's dashboard showed that of the 170 confirmed positive cases, 29 active cases remained. 

The local dashboard shows 327 individuals have been identified as "close contacts" of people with coronavirus, with 207 of those cleared. The CDC defines a "close contact" as someone known to have been within six feet of a coronavirus sufferer for at least 10 minutes.

The dashboard still reports that 120 people are still being monitored by the Vanderburgh County Health Department.