Positive cases reportedly rebounding with delta variant
The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) has changed Hamilton County’s COVID-19 Advisory Level from YELLOW to ORANGE.
That means community spread is medium to high, and the county has a point score of 2.0 or higher on ISDH’s monitoring scale. In order to reach a score of 2.0, a county must have 100 to 199 weekly cases per 100,000 residents and a seven-day all test positivity rate of 10 to 14.9 percent.
“Unfortunately, the new designation doesn’t come as a huge surprise,” said Christian Walker, emergency preparedness coordinator for the Hamilton County Health Department. “The delta variant is far more contagious. In fact, the last time we saw daily cases this high was back in February.”
The vast majority of those getting sick from COVID-19 are unvaccinated. While there have been a number of breakthrough cases among those who were fully vaccinated, most have had minor to moderate symptoms and are not often hospitalized.
“We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, our best defense is vaccination,” Walker added. “Viruses mutate among those who are not vaccinated, becoming more and more resistant to vaccines. If we have any hope of curtailing COVID, we must get everyone vaccinated.”
Hamilton County must meet the metrics of YELLOW for two consecutive weeks before it will be allowed to move to back to that designation. In order to meet that criteria, Hamilton County must have 10 to 99 weekly cases per 100,000 residents and a seven-day all test positivity rate of 5 to 9.9 percent.