TOP STORY OF THE DAY, brought to you free by WICU: County in orange, numbers rising

Although the Indiana State Department o Health COVID-19 Dashboard shows Clay County in the ORANGE ADVISORY LEVEL CATEGORY, the current data about the spread of the virus in the community doesn’t look good for next week’s update on Wednesday.

The ADVISORY LEVEL CATEGORY refers to the current guidelines a county must follow to contain the virus’s speed in a community. A county must remain at a lower Weekly Two-Metric Score for two consecutive weeks to move to a lower advisory level.

On December 30, the Unique 7-Day All Tests Positivity Rate was 25.3%

On Thursday, January 6, the Unique 7-Day All Tests Positivity Rate was 30.8%.

If this virus positivity trend remains steady, the ISDH could move Clay County into the RED ADVISORY LEVEL next Wednesday.

Clay County’s current status in the four categories are as follows:

Weekly 2-Metric Score & Advisory Category - ORANGE

Weekly Cases Per 100,000 Residents - 3/RED

7-Day All Tests Positivity Rate - 2/ORANGE

COVID-19 related death increased by one, bringing the total to 66 since the beginning of the pandemic.

(The ISDH’s COVID-19 Dashboard can be viewed at www.coronavirus.in.gov)

COVID-19 VARIANTS

Currently, it appears the COVID-19 Omicron variant is spreading rapidly throughout the United States, and national health officials worry it will get worse due to the recent holiday celebrations and carry over into 2022.

However, ISDH data shows Omicron B.1.1.529 arriving in the state sometime in early December with 16.5% of the positive cases.

The Delta variant (B.1.617.2) is 83.2% of the positive cases.

There is a variant among the positive cases in December, but it only accounts for.4% and is not considered a variant of concern.

COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard

The ISDH’s COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard (www.https://www.coronavirus.in.gov/vaccine) reflects 11,198 Clay County residents are fully vaccinated, with 4,230 booster shots administered.

Throughout Indiana, the dashboard reflects 4,256 new fully vaccinated residents among the overall total of 3,572,863 vaccinated. Those receiving booster shots total 1,444,231