By SUZANNAH COUCH and ABIGAIL YOUMANS | The Democrat

The number of COVID-19 cases continues to decline as the number of Hoosiers receiving vaccines increases.

On March 3, Brown County was officially moved to blue-level restrictions — the lowest level — due to low numbers of new cases and declining test positivity rates. For three days in a row, the county did not report any new cases, but one new death was reported last week which occurred on Feb. 21.

As of March 5, the county’s total COVID-19 cases numbered 952, there were 40 COVID deaths, and more than 2,800 residents were at least partially vaccinated.

However, that does not mean the pandemic is over.

“We just want to definitely still follow CDC (Centers for Disease Control) guidelines. We’ve come so far and we’re looking so good, we just don’t want to lose sight of all of that right now,” said Corey Frost, public health preparedness coordinator, at the Brown County Commissioners meeting last week.

As residents travel out of the county for spring break next week and spring break tourists come in, there is potential for new case numbers to climb again.

Hoosiers are still asked to wear masks, wash their hands and social distance as state officials continue to roll out vaccinations in a race to beat any virus variants.

When asked at last week’s state press conference what declares the pandemic “over,” and if that is dependent on numbers of vaccinations, cases or hospitalizations, State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box said that was a difficult question to answer.

“It’s going to take time to get everyone vaccinated,” she said. “We’re not going to be able to call this pandemic over, with the mutations and other things that are happening with this virus, until we’ve really protected more of our populations, decreased our cases and kept those cases down.”

Vaccination progress

Last week, it was announced that Hoosiers ages 50 and older are now eligible to receive a vaccine, and teachers of all ages can receive it through a federal program being carried out in certain grocery store chains including Meijer, Kroger and Walmart this month.

Indiana residents age 50 and older can find vaccine locations and appointment slots at ourshot.in.gov; younger teachers can visit the stores’ websites.

At the March 3 commissioners meeting, Frost reported that the vaccine site at the Brown County Music Center had administered almost 3,000 vaccinations to Hoosiers from all over the state.

Brown County continues to receive 600 vaccines a week. But as vaccine numbers increase, testing for COVID-19 has decreased.

“We’re seeing a nose dive in the testing percentage that we’re doing. I don’t know if it’s just because people are not feeling ill or we’re just not seeing the volume of testing, which is good, too, because it helps relieve some of our staff to help vaccinate because we’re stretched pretty thin,” Frost said last week.

The BCMC site has volunteers helping along with a combat medic and support staff from the National Guard. “The process is fantastic. The state really likes our model here. The partnership with the music center has been tremendous,” Frost said.

“We’re going to continue to put needles into arms all the way through this. We’re all committed.”

Frost said it is possible the county will see an increase in vaccine allotment in April as the manufacturing increases.

A single-dose vaccine from Johnson & Johnson received an emergency authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration late last month. There are now three different vaccines available nationwide. The Brown County site offers the Moderna vaccine, which requires two shots.

Reopening buildings

During the commissioners meeting, Frost said he had spoken with Brown County Health Officer Norman Oestrike about reopening the County Office Building to allow the public to visit offices in person.

Frost suggested April 1 may be a good target date for reopening, which is still before the deadline to pay spring property taxes.

“The two tax collections that we went through last year, we tried to make them as easy as we could, but there are still people who need help from the treasurer’s office in-person,” commissioner Diana Biddle said. “They would actually be able to come into the building, be screened, come in and do their business.”

Visitors to the County Office Building will most likely still enter through the Salmon Room where they will be screened before being allowed to visit an office, and the number of people in each office would be monitored so they don’t exceed safe capacity.

“We can have a team approach to what this looks like,” Frost said. “I think it’s important we start getting back there, but we don’t want to move super-fast and lose all of the progress that we’ve made.”

Most Brown County schools have been able to stay on the “green,” in-person plan for instruction since the start of 2021.

Sprunica Elementary was closed Friday, Feb. 26 due to a staff member testing positive for COVID-19. All students except one class and people identified as close contacts returned in person the next Monday.

The Sprunica case was the first COVID-related closure that Brown County Schools has had to do since Jan. 19, as COVID absences, cases and exposures have generally dropped over the past month in all buildings, mirroring what the county data is showing.

Statewide report

More than 1 million Hoosiers had been partially vaccinated as of the end of last week with just over 633,000 being fully vaccinated.

The next age group to become eligible will be Hoosiers 40 to 49 years old. Additional medical conditions will also be added to the eligibility list.

At last week’s COVID press conference, Box said that 40- to 49-year-olds are at three times higher risk of severe illness. This age group captures 91 percent of all Hoosiers with comorbidities and more than 50 percent of Indiana’s classroom teachers.

The seven-day test positivity rate in the state is 3.4 percent, the lowest rate Indiana has seen since Sept. 17. When the color-coded COVID spread map of the state was updated on March 5, 51 counties were at the blue level and 41 were at yellow, with three counties on the orange advisory level.

“It will be one year ago this Saturday (March 6) since our first positive test and case,” Box said. “It’s been a year of heartbreak for many Hoosiers, but it’s also been a year of resilience.”

As for when the pandemic could be considered “over,” Box said she likes to look at the number of cases in a county per 100,000 people. As of last week, there was only one county with more than 200 cases per 100,000 people, she said. She also said they need to see that they have a handle on the virus variants.

“We may be looking at the potential of doing (vaccine) boosters in the fall,” she said, “with Moderna, Pfizer and perhaps Johnson & Johnson. The important thing is that these vaccinations are keeping hospitalizations down.”