Local health officials hopeful Omicron will peak soon in Southern Indiana

Jan. 27—SOUTHERN INDIANA — Local health officials are hopeful that Omicron is reaching its peak in Southern Indiana, but COVID-19 cases still remain high in the area.

Clark and Floyd counties have been in the red advisory level for COVID-19 spread for several weeks, and both counties remained in the high-risk level when the Indiana Department of Health updated its COVID-19 dashboard on Wednesday. All counties in Indiana are in the red category.

Floyd County Health Officer Dr. Tom Harris believes the Omicron surge is soon to peak in the area, saying numbers seem to be at least plateauing in Floyd County.

"One good we've seen with Omicron is a very rapid response when it starts to go away," he said. 'With Delta, it went up and it stayed up, but the Omicron looks like the Space Needle — it goes up quickly and goes back down quickly."

But as COVID-19 spread remains widespread in the community, "we're not done yet," Harris said.

"We need to continue to use masks and continue to promote vaccinations," Harris said. "If you are sick, stay home, and if you are severely sick, seek medical help. We need to continue those behaviors for a few more weeks, but I think we are really at the crest of this particular wave."

Clark County Health Officer Dr. Eric Yazel notes that for the past few days, positive cases have been dropping or plateauing in Indiana based on the state's COVID-19 dashboard.

However, he said, since northern areas of the state saw an earlier surge in Omicron cases, they "may be a few days ahead of us on the curve." He expects that Southern Indiana will mirror those trends, but Clark County is still seeing a large number of cases at the moment. He expects cases could decline within a week.

Yazel, an emergency room physician at Clark Memorial Health, has noticed that the hospital census for COVID-19 patients remains high, but he believes it is starting to level off.

It usually takes a week or two to see a decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations versus overall COVID-19 numbers in the community, he said.

"I think [a decline in hospitalizations] is on the horizon, and that's good news for everyone," Yazel said.

Floyd County's 7-day COVID-19 positivity rate as of Tuesday was 40.72% compared to 41% last week and 36.8% the week before, according to the Floyd County Health Department.

"The graph shot up dramatically [in recent weeks], but it's at least plateaued," Harris said. "We've seen no dramatic increase this week, and we have seen a decrease in the hospital census, which is a good sign, too."

The community continues to face a shortage of COVID-19 testing kits, Harris said.

"Test kits are certainly in short supply for the professionals," he said. "We're still getting complaints every day, because people are coming and asking, 'why can't I get an antigen test?' It's because we simply can't get them, and it's a nationwide shortage."

He encourages everyone to take advantage of the free at-home rapid tests from the federal government, which include four tests per household. However, he is concerned about the effect of large-scale home testing on the reporting of COVID-19 data, since at-home tests are largely unreported or underreported.

Yazel emphasizes the need to protect those who are vulnerable to COVID-19, including those who are unvaccinated and at high-risk. Those frequently around high-risk individuals should also take precautions.

"I think the perception that Omicron is not very severe for the average healthy person is correct, but it's those who are most susceptible I am worried about," he said.

Yazel said he would prefer everyone in the community mask up right now and consider the quality of masks they are wearing. He especially encourages N95 masks for individuals who are high risk and going out in the public. Surgical masks are significantly more effective than cloth, but a cloth mask is better than no mask at all, he said.

Harris said it will be helpful for community members to receive free N95 masks from the federal government, which will soon be made available at major pharmacies. Since Omicron is so infectious, he urges people to continue to wear masks, particularly if they are "likely to be in congested public areas."

Both Harris and Yazel say vaccinations are an essential tool to protect against severe COVID-19 infections. Harris, an emergency room doctor at Baptist Health Floyd, has noticed ER patients saying they did not get vaccinated and were planning to rely instead on COVID-19 treatments such as paxlovid and the type of monoclonal antibody treatment recommended to treat Omicron. However, these treatments are both in limited supply at hospitals, he said.

"To those people out there waiting to get the disease then wanting rescue therapy after they are sick, my word to them is well, let's get the vaccine first to limit the illness or even prevent them from getting infected rather than doing damage control with drugs that are in extremely short supply," Harris said.

Yazel said Omicron is causing many disruptions to daily life, including operations of businesses and schools. Although many local schools have faced recent periods of virtual learning, they are not necessarily seeing a mass number of kids out sick and quarantined, and staffing issues appear to be the main challenges facing schools, he said.

It is a "waiting game" to see what happens next in terms of COVID-19, but Yazel said he is hopeful that the combination of vaccinations and immunity from recent infections could lead to a better situation once the community gets past the Omicron surge.

"I think things are going to get much better in the next weeks, and I think we can at least have a chance to take a breath a little bit," he said.