TOP STORY OF THE DAY, brought to you free by WICU: County returns to RED; more than 300 CCSC students on quarantine

The ISDH COVID-19 MAP, as of noon Thursday, shows 11 counties in ORANGE and the rest in Indiana RED for the following categories: • Weekly 2-Metric Score • 7-Day All Tests Positivity Rate • Advisory Level

With a total of 72 deaths attributed to COVID-19 and a Unique 7-day Positivity Rate of 40%, Clay County is RED on the Indiana State Department on Health’s COVID-19 Dashboard ADVISORY LEVEL CATEGORY.

The ADVISORY LEVEL refers to the current guidelines the county must follow. A county must remain at a lower Weekly Two-Metric Score for two consecutive weeks to move to a lower advisory level.

Local health officials are watching the spread of the virus closely in the county and admit it doesn’t look good for next week’s update on Wednesday.

Clay Community Schools COVID-19 data

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

Weekly 2-Metric Score & Advisory Category - 3/RED

Weekly Cases Per 100,000 Residents - 3/RED

7-Day All Tests Positivity Rate - 3/RED

The current data continues to show an increase in all categories.

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

COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard

The ISDH’s COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard (www.https://www.coronavirus.in.gov/vaccin e) reflects that 11,286 Clay County residents are fully vaccinated, with 4,475 booster shots administered.

Throughout Indiana, the dashboard reflects 3,932 new fully vaccinated residents among the overall total of 3,591,190 vaccinated. Those receiving booster shots total 1,521,150.

The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a key Biden administration covid-19 initiative — putting a stop, for now, to a rule requiring businesses with more than 100 workers to either mandate that employees be vaccinated against covid or wear masks and undergo weekly testing. The rule, which covers an estimated 80 million workers, took effect earlier this week.

At the same time, however, the justices said that a separate rule requiring covid vaccines for an estimated 10 million health workers at facilities that receive funding from Medicare and Medicaid could go forward. The justices removed a temporary halt imposed by a lower court late last year that affected health care facilities in half the states.

In emergency oral arguments held Jan. 7, a majority of the justices seemed dubious that the federal government, through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, had broad enough authority to require vaccines or tests for the bulk of the nation’s private workforce, particularly for a threat that is not job-specific.

Said the unsigned majority opinion: “A vaccine mandate is strikingly unlike the workplace regulations that OSHA has typically imposed.

A vaccination, after all, ‘cannot be undone at the end of the workday.’”