Graphic by Andy East | The Republic
Local health officials say they are seeing an alarming increase in the number of children and high-risk adults in the Columbus area who are falling ill with COVID-19.
The increases are of particular concern, officials say, with the holiday season in full swing, colder weather forcing gatherings indoors and a stubbornly high hospital census at Columbus Regional Hospital that has been in the double-digits since Aug. 3.
A total of 187 children in the Columbus area have tested positive for COVID-19 during the seven-day period ending Nov. 20, up from 76 a month earlier, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
CRH is seeing an uptick in the number of elderly or immunocompromised adults who weren’t vaccinated or didn’t get their booster in time who are now winding up in the hospital.
Overall, there were 23 people hospitalized with COVID-19 at CRH on Tuesday morning — including five people listed in critical condition, the hospital said.
Of those 23, 10 were in their 70s and five were in their 80s. One patient was in their late teens. About 80% of those hospitalized at CRH were unvaccinated.
“(COVID-19) is still coursing through that unvaccinated population pretty heavily and so those are the top areas of concern, especially as we know — certainly more so then last year — people are going to be gathering more and getting back to those traditional kind of celebrations,” said CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue.
The concerns from local officials come as U.S. is facing its second Thanksgiving holiday weekend of the pandemic, raising concerns that cases, hospitalizations and eventually deaths could once again spike as families travel the country for gatherings — especially among the unvaccinated.
About 59% of Americans are fully vaccinated, including 55% of Bartholomew County residents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Some neighboring counties — including Jackson and Jennings counties — have lower vaccination rates.
Just 37% of Jennings County residents and 49% of Jackson County residents were fully vaccinated as of Wednesday morning.
However, that leaves about 32,550 eligible Bartholomew County residents, 20,000 Jackson County residents and 14,980 Jennings County residents who have yet to get vaccinated, and officials believe some of those never will.
Officials are concerned that hospitalizations and deaths could once again rise this winter.
Four people in the Columbus area — Bartholomew, Brown, Decatur and Jackson counties — have died from COVID-19 since this past Friday, according to the state health department.
Overall, the virus has killed 188 Bartholomew County residents.
“We don’t want to have a repeat of December last year when we were at our highest numbers ever,” DeClue said. “…We don’t anticipate those numbers to be quite as high (this year), but the landscape has certainly changed.”
