Putnam County goes red in COVID-19 metrics

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

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.

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  • But yet people refuse to wear a mask while shopping or even while on the job, not covering their nose or mouth properly.

    -- Posted by MAY04 on Wed, Dec 30, 2020, at 5:13 PM
  • What exactly does "Red" mean to the citizens?

    -- Posted by Workingthesoil on Wed, Dec 30, 2020, at 6:09 PM
  • https://www.in.gov/gov/files/12-13-1-3-Coronavirus-Response-Requirements.pdf

    Happening Today that information can be found at the above link.

    -- Posted by Koios on Wed, Dec 30, 2020, at 6:54 PM
  • The Governor said today everyone has to be diligent and follow the covid protocol put in place. It’s what he says every week. People are numb to it. Bottom line, being red won’t change anything as no consequences equals no change.

    So now let’s blah, blah, blah on about how wearing a mask is harmful and the high recovery rate if “you” contract the virus....

    -- Posted by kbmom on Wed, Dec 30, 2020, at 8:04 PM
  • Please just wear a mask! As a healthcare worker I see how sick this virus can make people and the easiest thing to do is WEAR A MASK!! Its not like you are being asked to wear a ball and chain and its no different than being asked to wear shirt and shoes in public! I signed up to work the frontlines and I am in no way complaining but come on people.....we are tired, WE are trying to stay healthy and we want YOU to stay healthy, so please just wear a mask.

    -- Posted by putcoresident84 on Thu, Dec 31, 2020, at 11:26 AM
  • Thank you, putcoresident84. Well said!

    -- Posted by MAY04 on Thu, Dec 31, 2020, at 5:13 PM
  • Resident84, thank you for your frontline service!

    I wish you well as you fight the fight. I wish people would listen to what you have to say and wear a mask.

    -- Posted by kbmom on Thu, Dec 31, 2020, at 8:04 PM
  • They are going to have to get a lot more strict on these masks. Walmart, CVS, Kroger, etc. do not follow the mandatory rules for masks. There is never a time when I go into these establishments that there are people walking around with a mask. ENFORCE IT. It has come to the point where people should be escorted out of the stores. If they don't want to follow the rules, then order their items from home and have them delivered. As small as Putnam County is it is astounding they they rate so high ending up in the red zone.

    -- Posted by Queen53 on Fri, Jan 1, 2021, at 2:50 PM
  • Logic is lost when emotion takes over.

    -- Posted by beg on Fri, Jan 1, 2021, at 10:22 PM
  • For years they have enforced "No shirt, no shoes , no service" In our new world they need to amend to " No shirt, no shoes, no MASK, no service"

    -- Posted by Workingthesoil on Sat, Jan 2, 2021, at 8:22 AM
  • *

    If you are "experiencing homelessness" you are exempt from the mask mandate.

    If you are "incarcerated" you are exempt from the mask mandate.

    If you have a "medical condition, mental health condition, or disability which prevents wearing a face covering" you are exempt from the mask mandate.

    This is per Holcomb's executive order 20-48.

    I wonder if anyone (like, say, the busybodies on here or the Putnam County Health Department) has bothered to ask all of these coronavirus cases whether or not they were ardent mask wearers... b/c I have $5 that says more people that wear masks have tested positive than people that are not wearing masks.

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Sat, Jan 2, 2021, at 10:38 PM
  • That is probably a safe bet, DPR.

    -- Posted by donantonio on Sun, Jan 3, 2021, at 6:59 PM
  • Go to Indiana.gov and pull up the COVID-19 interactive dashboard. Their "official" statistics state, as of 1/3/2021, a positivity rate of 19.8% of those tested, and a death rate of 1.5%. That is a recovery rate of 98.5%. Of the deaths, none for under 19 years of age, 587 under 60, and 7563 of those over 60. These stats are for those who tested positive, NOT the state population as a whole. Of an estimated 2020 Indiana population of 6.76 million, the death rate drops to a little over one-tenth of one percent. No opinion one way or the other, just reiterating our State government's own figures. Having been there and had loss, I can live with those odds!

    -- Posted by FactswithoutBS on Mon, Jan 4, 2021, at 2:25 PM
  • it's a hoax designed to control us. i do not believe in the government or the health "officials" people are getting sick of this plandemic

    -- Posted by davide_norris on Mon, Jan 4, 2021, at 7:07 PM
  • These comments are pretty tough to read after one loses family and friends due to Covid.

    -- Posted by Nit on Mon, Jan 4, 2021, at 8:12 PM
  • *

    Nit - If you have suffered loss of family and friends, for any reason, you have my sympathy.

    The loss of those close to us is very difficult regardless of the means by which they breathe their last.

    However, while not knowing the particulars of the passing of your loved ones, and without knowing for sure that it was actually due to COVID or in some way associated with coronavirus... the facts presented still stand.

    Death is simply a part of the experience of life.

    I have seen little children die of cancer. I have watched the passing of my own grandmother - a demented frail shell of who she once was - at 90+. I have seen innocent people die. I have seen drug addicts waste their life and ultimately lose it to their addiction. I have seen the seemingly healthy die in their 30s.

    As much as society wants to avoid it, fight it, and even believe they have some control over it... death comes for us all.

    Better to make right with God and always be prepared.

    This world - and our lives on it - is but a brief span of time in an eternity.

    Some of us simply wish to live it as free as we can.

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Mon, Jan 4, 2021, at 8:57 PM
  • AMEN to DPR. Well said!

    -- Posted by Prince of Stardust Hills on Mon, Jan 4, 2021, at 9:12 PM
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