BEDFORD — Lawrence County's escalating cases of COVID-19 moved the county's status to level red Wednesday.
Level red indicates high community spread.
Lawrence County has been level orange for some time and this marks the first move to red locally since the Indiana State Department of Health began releasing a statewide map of COVID-19 cases.
Based on the number of cases in the county, Mary Kinser, public health nurse at the Lawrence County Health Department, said she was not surprised. The county's positivity rate is 15.65%.
"We've been close to red for a while. Our positives and our positivity rate has remained high," she said.
The county has experienced high positivity off and on, but Kinser said when a county's positivity is maintained for days, it moves to level red.
"We've been here before, but it's gone down after a few days. We have wide community spread right now," she said.
The state map released Wednesday showed about half of the state was red. Last week, Orange County went red; this week it was back to orange, but just barely. Nearby Jackson County is also at level red with a positivity rate of 17.55%.
Kinser is concerned that the county's numbers may remain high and how that will affect hospitals.
"With people gathering for Christmas and now for New Year's, I just don't know if our health care system can handle many more cases," she said. "On our call today, IU Health (Bedford) had a few beds available but that can change rapidly. The ICU was full."
Even as the vaccine is being given to health care workers — Kinser received hers Monday — all residents need to keep wearing masks, socially distance and avoid gathering in large groups.
"In the summer we thought we had a lot, but we've had more cases in the last month than we had in the six months prior," she said. "People are still lax on wearing masks even though we know masks greatly reduce the risk of getting the virus."
The Link LonkDecember 31, 2020 at 01:04AM
https://www.hoosiertimes.com/tmnews/county-moves-to-red-as-cases-increase/article_676b889e-4ac9-11eb-a374-33a2349b4004.html
County moves to red as cases increase | Tmnews | hoosiertimes.com - Times-Mail
https://news.google.com/search?q=Red&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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