County sees rising hospital bed use, community spread of COVID-19

Bartholomew County is reporting its 60th death from COVID-19.

The most recent death came on Friday, according to details reported to the Indiana State Department of Health. The county has had 40 new positive test results, bringing the total to 1,898.

Under the state color-coded map, Bartholomew County remains yellow or showing moderate spread, while Johnson, Shelby, Decatur, Jennings and Jackson counties are all orange, showing high community spread. Brown County is coded as blue, showing minimal spread.

The Bartholomew County COVID-19 Community Task Force is reporting the per-capita positive testing rate is 45.5, or red. Anything above a 10 is considered substantial spread under the county metrics. The positive rate has not been below the red level since mid-October. The task force is also reporting 21 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Bartholomew County.

Statewide, Indiana reported 4,213 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday. That brings the state’s total to 214,509 since the pandemic began. There have been 4,418 COVID-19 deaths in the Hoosier state since the pandemic started after 34 more were announced yesterday.