COLUMBUS, Ind. Local health officials are concerned about the exhaustion of pandemics and a “false sense of security” among residents as hospitalizations and infection rates start to drop from the sky-high levels seen during the winter outbreak as more cases of the British variant of the virus are reported in Indiana detected.
A total of 163 Bartholomew County residents tested positive for COVID-19 from Feb. 12 to 18, up from 178 the previous week, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
By comparison, 587 Bartholomew County residents tested positive for COVID-19 the week ending November 22 and 390 the week ending January 10.
Statistics from the COVID-19 Community Task Team also show that the weekly positive percentage per capita in the country drops to 25.4 per 100,000 inhabitants, on Wednesday, compared to 106.4 per 100,000 on 20 November and 60.7 on 13 January.
The hospital also said 11 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Columbus Regional Health this past Wednesday.
While many statistics in Bartholomew County are declining, hospitalizations and positivity rates are still higher than in early fall, including Wednesday’s weekly positive per capita percentage, which on September 2 was still above the 6.8 per 100,000 population threshold.
The hospital went 45 days in a row with less than ten hospitalizations from August 27 to October 10.
Dr Slade Crowder, CRH vice president of operating companies for physicians, said he was concerned about “COVID fatigue” and the “logical but wrong assumption that we are out of the woods.”
“While the trends are going down, we are coming down from very high peaks,” Crowder said. ‘… We still have a large community in Bartholomew County, and it’s easy to lose sight of that when we’ve had such a high peak. It’s easy to get a false sense of security that things are back to normal. ”
For more information on this story, see Sunday’s Republic.