Bartholomew, Decatur remain orange in sea of red

Bartholomew and Decatur counties remain in the orange advisory level on the Indiana State Department of Health’s color-coded map of COVID-19 community spread, indicating serious spread of the disease. But they are surrounded by counties in the red.

Brown, Johnson, Shelby, Jennings and Jackson counties are all in the red, indicating severe spread of the disease.

Once a county crosses over into the red, it must maintain orange-level metrics for two consecutive weeks to be moved back to the less severe category.

In the figures released yesterday by the state, Bartholomew County showed 38 new cases of COVID-19, Shelby 30, Decatur 23, Jennings 15, Jackson 27, Brown 1 and Johnson County had 132 new cases. Johnson and Decatur county each had one new death from the disease, the only area counties to add fatalities.

Statewide there were 4,411 new positive cases of the disease reported yesterday, with 40 new deaths. Indiana has a 7-day positivity rate of 15.3 percent.