Officials continue to feel positive about the county’s COVID-19 numbers and push information about getting vaccines.
At Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer’s biweekly coronavirus press conference Wednesday, the number of positive cases and how many vaccines have been administered were shared.
Kosciusko County Health Department Communicable Disease Nurse Teresa Reed said the total number of cases the county’s seen is 8,567, with 111 deaths.
Reed said the death number has been going up some because the state has gone back and found data they’re adding to those deaths, but current deaths aren’t increasing.
In February, the county saw 350 cases, which is the lowest number since September when the county saw around 280 before jumping up to over 1,000 in October.
The health department’s vaccine clinic has been operating since Jan. 11, and as of Wednesday morning, the staff had vaccinated over 8,040 people, averaging about 350 per day, Reed said.
Reed said over 97% of the people who have died in the county were over the age of 50.
“So as we were able to have this vaccine available, it’s really nice because it’s available to the populations who are at highest risk, and Indiana is looking at scaling this out as quickly as they can,” Reed said.
Reed touted the 350 people they’re vaccinating daily at KCHD as on par with some mass vaccination clinics.
There are no plans to have a mass clinic here, Thallemer said, but officials are thinking about options for a second vaccination clinic if there is a need.
Kurt Carlson, President and CEO of the Bowen Center, said the testing site at the fairgrounds is seeing a lot less traffic, averaging about 36 people per day.
The clinic is open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on select days.
Also available during those times is the Bowen Center’s bilingual hotline. Anyone can call 574-347-4256 and receive help registering for a vaccine.
“So far we have registered 78 people through the hotline, and 25 of those were Spanish speakers, so it’s actually achieving its purpose,” Carlson said, citing that the state’s department of health website is English only. “So, those are 25 people who would not have been able to access the vaccination.”
The next biweekly coronavirus press conference is at 10:30 a.m. March 17 at City Hall and available live at www.warsaw.in.gov.
