More than half of Indiana COVID-19 map now blue, including Floyd County

The Evening News and the Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind.
·2 min read

Mar. 3—INDIANA — On Wednesday, Floyd County joined the more than half of Indiana counties now designated in blue on the Indiana State Department of Health color-coded map related to COVID-19 spread.

The state Department of Health uses the seven-day positivity rate for all tests in a given county, along with the number of new cases per week per 100,000 residents, to reach the metric related to the color shown on the map, which is updated every Wednesday.

Blue shows the least spread, and red the highest. The weekly report shows Floyd County with a score of 0.5 and in the blue category, although yellow guidelines must be observed for two weeks. Clark County remains yellow with a score of 1.5. Both Clark and Floyd reached the red stage earlier during the pandemic.

"We're getting there; we're getting better, that's the bottom line," Floyd County Health Officer Dr. Tom Harris said early Wednesday afternoon. He said that between the county Health Department site at IUS and the drive-through clinic at Baptist Health Floyd, around 30,000 doses have been administered. At Clark Memorial Health, around 27,000 have been administered.

Clark County Health Officer Dr. Eric Yazel said even as numbers decrease, he sees a likely upswing after spring break, though not as large as some of the others like around Thanksgiving.

"Do I think we're going to go red, no. Do I think we're going to see a little swing in our numbers, yes," he said. "It will be interesting to see because if we don't see that, that will show that we're starting to reach herd immunity status."

In overall cases, Clark County has 11,999, 23 new as of Wednesday. Floyd has 7,226 cases, 10 new. There have been 181 deaths in Clark County and 170 in Floyd County, with no new deaths reported.

The seven-day positivity rate for unique individuals between Feb. 18 and 24 in Floyd County is 11.8%, a two-thirds drop in positivity from its high of over 30% a few months ago. Floyd County was at 11% for unique individuals for the same time period, and statewide, that percentage is 9.6.

There have been 663,511 COVID-19 cases reported among Hoosiers since last March, 786 new. There have been 12,200 deaths statewide, nine new as of Wednesday.