Putnam County goes red in COVID-19 metrics
Climbing numbers of cases and positivity rate have driven Putnam County into the highest alert level for COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
In the Indiana State Department of Health metrics released Wednesday for the week of Dec. 21-26, Putnam County was given a metric of 3, or a red, the highest level of alert.
The two metrics that drive the rating are weekly cases per 100,000 residents and seven-day positivity rate on all tests.
Putnam’s cases per 100,000 was 460 for the week, well in excess of the 200 cases threshold for a red rating. Meanwhile, the 15.38-percent positivity rating fell just over the 15-percent threshold.
When a county is in the red metric, these requirements remain in effect until the metric has returned to orange or lower for two weeks. Local officials may impose additional restrictions.
In moving to a red rating, Putnam joined 44 other counties, including bordering Clay, Parke, Montgomery, Hendricks and Morgan counties.
Only Owen County, at the second-highest level of orange, is not in the highest alert level.
Statewide, only one county — Jay in eastern Indiana — is rated outside the top two alert levels.
Cases in Putnam County have continued to climb recently, with 2,404 positive cases since March. The single-day record for local positives was set on Dec. 19, with 82 new cases.
Meanwhile, deaths are also on the rise, with a total of 39 since the beginning of the pandemic, 31 of them since mid-September.