As Virus Numbers Improve, Vaccinations Still Encouraged
As Virus Numbers Improve, Vaccinations Still Encouraged
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
As Virus Numbers Improve, Vaccinations Still EncouragedAs the COVID-19 cases and deaths in the county, state and nation continue on a downward trend, the final regularly scheduled press conference at Warsaw City Hall took place Wednesday.
Public health officials are still strongly encouraging everyone to get vaccinated, noting there’s plenty of opportunities to get immunized.
The press conferences have been held for over a year, starting with Kosciusko County Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington meeting with local press in the county courthouse every other week or so before they moved to City Hall where they were livestreamed thanks to Mayor Joe Thallemer. The press conferences were held weekly before moving to biweekly.
At Wednesday’s event, Remington reminded everyone that the first known case of COVID-19 was reported in Kosciusko County on March 26, 2020. Since then, there have been 9,521 cases, up from 9,410 two weeks ago. There were 117 deaths, the same as two weeks ago.
“We are under a governor’s blue advisory at this point, which is better than two weeks ago when we were at yellow,” he said. “We have a seven-day rolling positivity of 3.4%. At our worse in November, we were at 26%. Two weeks ago, we were at 3.7%.”
Remington said Kosciusko averages three new cases daily. At its worse, the county saw 134 new cases daily in November. Two weeks ago, there were six new cases a day.
“So a downward trend in all those things,” he said. “Hospitalizations, a key indicator of real, on-the-ground issues with the pandemic are down. District 2, which is South Bend; District 3, Allen County, down. The whole state, down. The whole nation, down. In fact, cases down, in the entire state, in the entire nation. In the aggregate, we are looking more like we did in June a year ago. That’s great news. These are durable trends since we last met.”
The state of Indiana has put more than 5 million doses of the vaccine into people’s arms, which Remington said was unprecedented. “I know we have never had a mass immunization campaign in the state of Indiana like this,” he said.
There are 2.4 million Hoosiers fully immunized as of Tuesday.
In Kosciusko County, 22,814 have had a first dose with 22,006 fully immunized. That’s up 3,078 in the last two weeks.
With the Pfizer vaccine now available to those 12 years old and older, Remington said 34% of Kosciusko County residents 12 and older have had their first dose of vaccine and 33% are fully immunized.
At the Kosciusko County Health Department immunization clinic, since it gave its first dose on Jan. 11, 2021, it has delivered 21,540 doses of the vaccine into arms.
“I can tell you, in Kosciusko County, that is an unprecedented clinical effort for our Health Department. We have never done anything like that. Ever,” Remington said.
The hot topic in public health here and nationwide, he said, is vaccine hesitancy.
“The (Center for Disease Control) has noted the pale yellow color of the state of Indiana compared to other states. And some counties are looking a little lacking – in Kosciusko County, not horrific I would say compared to our peer group if you look at the entire county, but if you go zip code by zip code, which you can do on the state’s dashboard, we have some zip codes that are not well represented with immunization rates,” Remington said.
He said the CDC is looking into the topic across the country and have come to Kosciusko County to meet with people. “If they ask you what you’re thinking with vaccines, please be kind with them, give them your real thoughts. They’re building a strategy that we hope will bring some fresh thinking to us to help promote winning more people to vaccine,” Remington said.
The vaccines are easy to get, he said. A?person can go to ourshot.in.gov or call 211; or go to a pharmacy where walk-ups are OK.
“And my personal take: Vaccines are safe and effective. It’s a real opportunity in Kosciusko County and we should just get it done,” he stated.
Bowen Center CEO Kurt Carlson said the testing site at the fairgrounds continues to give about 30 COVID-19 tests a day. The hours have been shortened to 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. The hotline calls, in English and Spanish, are down to just a handful a day.
“We anticipate the state will want us to continue providing testing through December, and we’re certainly willing to do that,” he said.
During the fair, the testing site will move to the Center Lake Pavilion in late June through July.
Carlson said the CDC spent two hours at the test site and were “very impressed” with the way that was operating.
Other countries aren’t faring as well.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that the “official COVID-19 figures in India grossly understate the true scale of the pandemic in the country. Last week, India recorded the largest daily death toll for any country during the pandemic — a figure that is most likely still an undercount.”
Reuters reported Sunday that “Hospitals in Japan's second largest city of Osaka are buckling under a huge wave of new coronavirus infections, running out of beds and ventilators as exhausted doctors warn of a ‘system collapse,’ and advise against holding the Olympics this summer.”
So why is the United States better off?
When asked, Remington attributed it to the availability of vaccine per population.
“We are head and shoulders above what India has in resource,” he said. “So I would have to say the 10,000-foot view is we were very fortunate to have vaccine in this country when we did. Robustly available as it has been. India would have, I think, loved to have that.”
Thallemer mentioned that Japan’s numbers are on the upswing and it just started its vaccination program.
“That’s why I’m such a big vaccine (proponent),” Remington said. “I mean, I know there’s a real battle now with those who chose not to be vaccinated – I don’t want there to be a battle, there shouldn’t be a battle – but I’ll just tell you from the bird’s-eye view as a public health figure, with some durability, the vaccines have really bent the curve on this. There’s no question.”
He said those who are “totally naive, and not have an ability to vaccine, this pathogen is rough. It fills ICUs, and it’s nasty. It puts seasoned healthcare workers in tears. Something is impressive with this pathogen. We have really seen that. We’re no longer as naive now in this country. Either from natural means or from vaccine or both, that’s all good. That’s how pandemics go.”
