Wayne County continues reporting COVID-19 case, positivity rate highs

RICHMOND, Ind. — COVID-19's omicron variant continues pushing Wayne County to new highs for cases and positivity rate.

Monday's Indiana State Department of Health update showed 16,982 laboratory-confirmed cases, 303 deaths from COVID complications and a seven-day positivity rate of 26.5% for Wayne County. The day-by-day case totals revealed the county recorded 1,228 new cases Jan. 17-23, which is the Monday-Sunday period the state uses to calculate county metric scores.

The weekly case total is the county's highest during the pandemic and the third consecutive total exceeding 1,000 cases. It by itself is more than two-thirds (68.8%) of the previous high monthly case total, the 1,784 cases from both November 2020 and September 2021. With a week to go, there have been 3,432 cases reported during January, a total that's 92.4% more than those previous monthly highs.

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Last week's case total was boosted by three individual days that exceeded 200 cases each. The 244 cases reported Jan. 20 is the county's highest single-day total. Of January's first 23 days, 19 surpassed 100 cases and four exceeded 200 cases.

The month's daily average of 149 cases is six more cases than the daily high — 143 on Aug. 31, 2021 — from the pandemic's first 22 months. During January, 15 days have recorded more than 143 cases.

The state's reported case totals continue to rise even as home COVID-19 tests become more prevalent. Dr. Paul Rider, the president of the county's health board, said during last week's board meeting that the state case totals are likely low because residents testing positive at home often do not report their test results.

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Wayne County's seven-day positivity rate also has continued climbing. The 26.5% is 2.5 percentage points higher than the rate reported Jan. 17 and more than double the 12.3% rate reported Jan. 3.

All of the local Indiana counties have positivity rates that will score red when the state updates county metric scores Wednesday. A case total of 200 per 100,000 people and a positivity rate of 15.0% or more score three points in the state's metric calculation, which averages the two scores. A 3.0 score is the only red score.

Wayne County first scored red this year on Jan. 12, and the entire state scored red last week. The state's positivity rate was 30.3% in Monday's update. Among the local counties, Franklin's rate is 31.8%, Union's 29.0%, Randolph's 28.4%, Henry's 26.6% and Fayette's 18.2%.

The overall case and death totals for the other area counties are:

• Darke County: 11,440 positive cases and 202 deaths;

• Henry County: 12,027 positives and 202 deaths;

• Fayette County: 6,054 positives and 122 deaths;

• Franklin County: 3,946 positives and 50 deaths;

• Preble County: 8,524 positives and 170 deaths;

• Randolph County: 5,364 positives and 129 deaths;

• Union County: 1,781 positives and 19 deaths.

Indiana has recorded 1,560,117 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases and 20,033 COVID-related deaths through Sunday. The Ohio Department of Health's Sunday update reported 2,515,949 cases and 31,987 deaths.

State vaccination clinic

Wayne County still does not have half of its population fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Monday's state update showed 30,992 fully vaccinated residents, a total that's about 47% of the county's population.

Another 2,447 residents have received one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, so about 50.8% of county residents have received some vaccine.

A state strike team will offer free COVID-19 testing and vaccinations noon-8 p.m. Jan. 26-29 at the Wayne County Fairgrounds, 861 Salisbury Road.

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"We always welcome the state's strike team to come to town," said Christine Stinson, the executive director of the Wayne County Health Department, in a news release. "They are a great partner. Anytime we can get additional resources to Wayne County, we all work together to make it happen."

The team can provide the initial vaccine series or booster vaccine doses. Boosters are recommended five months after the second dose of Pfizer or Moderna or two months after a Johnson and Johnson single-dose protocol.

Appointments are encouraged for the clinic or to receive vaccinations from the health department or Reid Health, but walk-ins are accepted. Make an appointment for any vaccine provider at ourshot.in.gov.

This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: COVID in Wayne County: High number of cases, positivity rate in area