Another eight Marshall County residents have tested positive for COVID-19. That’s according to Thursday’s update from the Indiana State Department of Health. Almost 10,000 Marshall County residents have now been tested for the coronavirus. Of those, 910 of them have tested positive at some point.
Pulaski County had another three positive cases, bringing its total to 103. Starke County added one case for a new total of 214.
To make it easier for residents, school administrators, and local officials to understand the level of spread in their communities, the Indiana State Department of Health has added a new color-coded map to its COVID dashboard. Locally, Marshall and Pulaski counties are blue, which is the lowest of the four levels in the system. They’re also reporting a downward trend in positivity rates. Starke County is at the second-lowest level, yellow, and its positivity rate has gone up.
Counties coded yellow are recommended to continue having school in-person but increase vigilance in slowing the spread, according to State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box. “We would recommend considering no assemblies or activities occur, if social distancing is not feasible,” Box explained during Wednesday’s COVID-19 briefing. “We’d recommend that schools postpone or cancel extracurricular activities as warranted and consider allowing only parents or close family members to attend athletic and other events.”
While the change in positivity rate is listed on the map, Dr. Box said that health officials ultimately decided not to factor it into a county’s color. She said it introduced too much volatility and didn’t reflect the true community spread. “We want these maps to be useful tools but do not want them to give people a false sense of security when COVID is still very active in their communities,” Box said. “So the map that we will be posting . . . will be based on two metrics: the positivity rate and the cases per 100,000 individuals.”
The state as a whole is now up to almost 97,000 cases of COVID-19. A total of 3,110 Hoosiers are confirmed to have died, with another 222 deaths believed to be COVID-related but lacking a positive test.
