HANCOCK COUNTY — COVID-19 numbers are again rising in the county, with several new deaths reported this week and the most cases in one day since the height of the pandemic in January.
A local health official attributes the rise to stalling vaccination participation; colder weather driving people indoors; and complacency following the pandemic’s subdued summer.
The county added four new COVID-19 deaths this week, raising its total to 183. Two victims were age 80 or older, and two were in their 70s, according to information from the Indiana Department of Health. Three were women and one was a man. The deaths occurred on Nov. 16, 15 and 12 and Oct. 30.
Hancock County also added 78 new cases from Tuesday, the most in a single day since early January.
Daily cases have been trending upward in the county, and the state downgraded the county’s COVID-19 advisory level on Wednesday to orange, the second-most severe.
Cases have also been trending upward statewide.
Craig Felty, vice president, chief operations officer and chief nursing officer for Hancock Regional Hospital, said he thinks the main reason for the rise in infections is that there continues to be many unvaccinated individuals.
Craig Felty
More than 44,000 Hancock County residents are fully vaccinated, more than 60% of the eligible population.
“The vaccination rate in the county has pretty much peaked, and we have a lot more people who, because of the cold weather coming, are being forced inside, which means people congregating near each other, and that of course increases the transmission of the virus,” Felty said.
He feels many stopped taking precautions after the plummet in COVID-19 cases over the summer.
“I see it as I’m out and about, and I get it, it just seems like very rarely do you see anybody wearing a mask anymore inside,” he said. “I think we’ve become kind of complacent. We started to see the numbers decrease and rested a little on our laurels, thought everything was going well. It goes to show that we have a lot to do and we still are in control of our own destiny here with this virus.”
Felty said the hospital was treating 12 COVID-19 patients on Wednesday, representing a rising trend over the past week and a half. He added the hospital recently hit a high of over 20 before going back down, and has been ranging from eight to 12 lately.
The patients range across all age groups, he continued, adding most of them are unvaccinated.
“Fortunately right now we’re not seeing those equate to hospitalizations,” Felty said of the recent rise in cases. “Normally it’s a week or two lag between getting diagnosed and getting sick. We’re kind of holding ourselves here for the next week or two, just kind of hoping we don’t get a hospital surge from this.”
Felty continues to encourage those who are not vaccinated to get vaccinated and for everyone to wear a mask when within 6 feet of others, especially indoors.
Hancock County residents in the 5-11 age group, who recently became eligible for COVID-19 vaccines, have started to get first doses in the available two-dose series, according to data from the state health department.
More than 8,000 county residents have received booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine. As of Wednesday, boosters were available for people 65 and older and adults in long-term care settings, with underlying medical conditions and/or who work or live in high-risk settings. The Food and Drug Administration is looking to authorize boosters of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for all adults as early as today (Thursday, Nov. 18).
Indiana continues to record breakthrough cases, in which a fully vaccinated individual becomes infected with COVID-19, but they make up less than 2% of fully vaccinated individuals. The state has also recorded breakthrough hospitalizations and deaths — 0.038% and 0.019% of fully vaccinated individuals, respectively.
