Kosciusko Goes RedForty-six of Indiana’s 92 counties are now in the highest-risk level of COVID, including Kosciusko County, as of noon Wednesday when the Indiana Department of Health released its weekly assessment.
The state has four advisory levels, with blue being the lowest, followed by yellow, orange and then red at the highest. A county must remain at a lower Weekly 2- Metric Score for two consecutive weeks to move down to a lower advisory level. Kosciusko County’s score, as of Wednesday evening, is now a 3 – the highest score – with a seven-day all tests positivity rate of 17.6%, according to the state’s map at coronavirus.in.gov.
Most of the northern third of the state is in red. All of Indiana is in either red or orange, except for Crawford County, which is in yellow with a positivity rate of 4.06% as of Wednesday.
According to an Associated Press story, the number of highest-risk counties is the highest Indiana has seen since the state’s worst COVID-19 surge in winter 2020 when 73 counties had red ratings in early January. At the beginning of November, the state listed just three counties with red ratings.
Indiana hospitals reported about 2,750 COVID-19 patients as of Tuesday, the AP story stated. That number has more than doubled in the past four weeks.
On March 6, 2020, the ISDH confirmed Indiana’s first case of COVID-19. The first case in Kosciusko County was confirmed two weeks later. The first death in Indiana due to COVID-19 was reported March 16, 2020. From April 5, 2020, to Tuesday, Dec. 7, Kosciusko County has had 169 deaths, with two of those reported between Monday and Tuesday this week. Except for Elkhart and St. Joe counties, Kosciusko County has had more deaths than its neighboring counties.
