Gary Sharp
HANCOCK COUNTY — The county reached another bleak marker in the COVID-19 pandemic after recording its 200th death.
Local health officials are saddened by the milestone. And while novel coronavirus hospitalizations remain high, the leaders note the mutation behind the current case surge doesn’t appear to be as devastating.
The latest two fatalities were in their 50s and 80 or older, according to information from the Indiana Department of Health. One was a woman and the other was a man. The deaths occurred on Dec. 30, 2021, and Jan. 1, 2022.
“It’s sobering, that’s for sure,” Hancock County health officer Dr. Gary Sharp said of reaching the 200 mark.
Craig Felty, vice president, chief operations officer and chief nursing officer for Hancock Regional Hospital, called it disappointing and staggering.
“It’s something that we would’ve hoped that we wouldn’t have reached,” Felty said. “But unfortunately it just shows the seriousness of this virus and how it’s affected all of us.”
Craig Felty
Hancock County’s first COVID-19 death was on March 21, 2020. Its 100th was on Jan. 12, 2021, as vaccine availability continued making its way further into the general population. That month is the county’s deadliest of the pandemic, with a total of 33 novel coronavirus fatalities.
“When it started we had really no treatment other than conventional methods,” Sharp said. “Now we have specific treatments, and we’ve learned how to deal with it much more efficiently.”
Nearly half of the county’s COVID-19 deaths were age 80 or older and almost a quarter were in their 70s. Thirty-four were in their 60s, 15 in their 50s, four in their 40s, two in their 30s and one in their 20s. Ninety-eight were women and 102 were men.
At the outset of the pandemic, most of the people coming to Hancock Regional Hospital with severe illness from COVID-19 and dying from the disease were elderly, Felty said.
“Now, for the most part, it’s more just the unvaccinated,” he added.
The hospital has had vaccinated patients with severe illness and who have died from COVID-19, but they’ve been elderly and had other health issues, he continued.
“The first thing that comes to our minds as health care workers is how many of these deaths could’ve been preventable,” Felty said of deaths of unvaccinated people. “It makes us sad, and in a way it makes us frustrated because we’ve seen the turmoil and the suffering of not only patients, but their family members have to go through. … We feel some of these deaths that we’ve had could have been prevented if they would’ve been vaccinated.”
Hancock Regional Hospital was treating 23 COVID-19 patients as of Wednesday morning, Felty said. Those along with the hospital’s other patients are keeping the facility at capacity, he continued, a situation that has endured for the past four to six weeks.
More than half of the ICU beds in the state are being used by non-COVID patients, while 37% are being used by COVID patients, leaving just over 10% available, according to the state health department. Indiana’s COVID-19 hospital census stood at just over 3,200 as of Tuesday.
Felty noted the hospital isn’t seeing a trend in hospitalizations following the rapid increase of positive cases in the community (Hancock County recorded its four highest case days of the pandemic last week). He said that corresponds with similar developments elsewhere regarding the omicron variant. While the mutation seems to be far more contagious than previous strains, it also appears to not cause as severe illness. Felty thinks lingering instances of the virus’s harsher delta variant are contributing to the bulk of hospitalizations and deaths.
Sharp agreed.
“Certainly omicron seems to be less virulent, which helps,” he said.
Felty hopes the latest trend is an indication that the virus will continue mutating into milder strains.
“We’re not necessarily there yet with COVID-19, but there are some resemblances there where we now have a variant that seems to be less severe in the disease it causes,” Felty said. “I don’t know if this means it’s the end; who knows. God forbid, there could be another variant that comes along that’s worse again, but we’re hoping not.”
By the numbers
Hancock County COVID-19 deaths by month
2020
March: 3
April: 6
May: 18
June: 7
July: 2
August: 4
September: 1
October: 1
November: 23
December: 22
2021
January: 33
February: 14
March: 5
April: 1
May: 5
June: 2
July: 4
August: 4
September: 19
October: 6
November: 6
December: 13
2022
Through Jan. 3: 1
Total: 200
Source: Indiana Department of Health
COVID-19 data through Jan. 3
Hancock County
431 new tests administered (Sept. 4, 2021-Jan. 3, 2022)
110 new cases (Jan. 3)
20.3% seven-day (Dec. 22-28, 2021) positivity rate all tests, 9.2% cumulative rate
2 new deaths (Dec. 30, 2021-Jan. 1, 2022)
183,791 total tests administered
62,594 total individuals tested
15,579 total cases
7.5% seven-day (Dec. 22-28, 2021) positivity rate unique individuals, 24.9% cumulative rate
200 total deaths
46,055 fully vaccinated (62.6% of eligible population)
19,175 booster doses
Indiana
47,279 new tests administered (April 24, 2020-Jan. 3, 2022), 8,384 new individuals tested
8,533 new cases (Dec. 27, 2021-Jan. 3, 2022)
20.5% seven-day (Dec. 22-28, 2021) positivity rate all tests, 9.2% cumulative rate
172 new deaths (Dec. 19, 2021-Jan. 3, 2022)
16,847,226 total tests administered
4,782,283 total individuals tested
1,286,590 total cases
16,115 total reinfection cases since Sept. 1, 2021
31.7% seven-day (Dec. 22-28, 2021) positivity rate unique individuals, 26.6% cumulative rate
18,605 total deaths
52.8% ICU beds in use – non-COVID
37% ICU beds in use – COVID
10.2% ICU beds available
21.3% ventilators in use – non-COVID
15.3% ventilators in use – COVID
63.4% ventilators available
Hospital census: 3,207 COVID-19 patients
Delta variant: 98.7% of samples in January
Omicron variant: 0.9% of samples in January
Not variant of concern: 0.4% of samples in January
651 total probable deaths
157 total cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children
3,568,721 fully vaccinated (54.8% of eligible population)
1,425,417 booster doses
112,773 breakthrough cases (3.17% of fully vaccinated individuals)
2,192 breakthrough hospitalizations (0.062% of fully vaccinated individuals)
1,090 breakthrough deaths (0.031% of fully vaccinated individuals)
Source: Indiana Department of Health
