VINCENNES, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)– Knox county is making strides in the fight against the pandemic. As of Monday, the county has now achieved a zero on Indiana’s COVID-19 county metrics dashboard.
To get to a zero on Indiana’s COVID-19 dashboard means a county’s positivity rate is less than 5 percent and they have less than 10 new cases per 100,000 people.
Dr. Alan Stewart said there is still more work to be done.
“Hopefully we’ll stay in the zero range, which I feel really excited about. We have a seven day positivity rate of less than five percent. Ours is 1.7 percent,” he began. “I checked it today and we have less than 10 cases per 100,000 that are active on a seven day period and our population is 35,000 to 36,000 in the county so we take that and multiply it by 3 and we have three active cases,”
50 percent of Knox county residents are vaccinated and the last COVID-19 death recorded in the area was on January 31.
Dr. Stewart said although they went against some state and local guidelines, like vaccinating teachers ahead of time and doing door to door vaccination, it worked out for them in the long run.
“People in the county have really done a nice job in cooperating and trying to do the right thing before they had the vaccine. People were keeping their distance and wearing their masks and this makes a big difference,” he said.
Vincennes Mayor Joe Yochum said it’s good to see people enjoying life again.
“We’ve already had a couple of events. We’ve had the rendezvous, which a record crowd this year. We also just had our Spring on Main a little over a week ago and had a great crowd for that. I just know everyone is excited about this event and wanting to get out with friends and enjoy the events we have coming up,” Yochum said.
He said they wouldn’t have made it this far without their health officials and the community’s cooperation.
“Everyone is doing their part and everyone knows that if we continue to do our part then we can continue to improve. and keep our numbers down to where they’re at. We can enjoy events more,” he concluded.
Dr. Stewart said they plan to host more community outreach clinics in the coming weeks. He said their goal is to educate people about the vaccine’s benefit and get more Knox county residents vaccinated.
