Indiana fully vaccinated its first person against COVID-19 on Jan. 18. That marked the beginning of a meteoric decline in cases. But, with 3,713 new cases reported Thursday, the state recorded its highest number of new cases since the beginning of the vaccine rollout.
During the month of January, more than 111,000 Hoosiers were infected with COVID-19 – that dropped to less than 35,000 in February and a little more than 25,000 in March.
Cases continued to their meteoric fall as more people were fully inoculated against the virus, to just 9,000 reported during the entire month of June.
But with lagging vaccination uptake and the delta variant’s appearance in late June, cases have skyrocketed again. In just 18 days in August, the state has reported nearly 40,000 new cases – more than June and July’s totals combined.
The state’s seven-day average for cases has jumped by more than 450 percent in just one month.
Only once since July 26 has the state reported fewer than 1,000 new cases. In that time period, more populous counties reported more cases – Marion, Allen and Vanderburgh counties reported more than 2,000 total cases each.
When adjusting for population, Huntington, Scott, Orange, Knox and Lawrence counties each reported more than 140 new cases per 10,000 residents in that time period, though Vanderburgh County wasn’t far behind, with 127.3 new cases per 10,000 residents.
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Hospitalizations have also surged. Indiana reported a pandemic-low hospital census on July 3, but hospitalizations have more than quadrupled in the last month – now at more than 1,600.
As cases have increased, there has been a small – though not insignificant – increase in the number of new vaccinations. In just more than a month, initial vaccinations increased by about 60 percent.
Contact Lauren at lchapman@wfyi.org or follow her on Twitter at @laurenechapman_.
