Andy East | The Republic
COVID-19 deaths in Bartholomew County and the surrounding area have increased past 750 as the highly contagious omicron variants continues to spread and local officials report growing hostility directed against health care workers.
As of Monday, a total of 764 people in and around Columbus had died from the virus, including 126 deaths since Thanksgiving and 69 since New Year’s Day, according to the Indiana Department of Health.
That figure includes 228 Bartholomew County residents whose lives have been cut short by the virus, as well as deaths in Brown, Decatur, Jackson, Jennings and Shelby counties.
The grim milestone comes nearly 14 months into a vaccination campaign that has been hampered by misinformation and political and legal battles, even as the vaccines have proven safe and effective at staving off serious illness and death.
It also comes after the United States surpassed 900,000 deaths from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University. Not long after, Indiana eclipsed 21,000 deaths — roughly the equivalent of the entire population of Seymour.
Local health officials have noted that one in three of Bartholomew County’s deaths have come since the vaccines were made available to all adults in Indiana. Eligibility has since been broadened to anyone ages 5 and up.
Columbus Regional Health officials have characterized the pandemic as “an unrelenting tragedy of continued death.”
“People are still dying from this every day,” said CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue.
Yet vaccination remains a divisive issue in Bartholomew County, with local doctors reporting that animosity against health care workers has increased in recent months.
Some local physicians, including Bartholomew County Health Officer Dr. Brian Niedbalski, said that they have to “carefully approach the subject” of COVID-19 vaccines with patients to avoid verbal altercations.
Last month, CRH officials said some hospital officials have been physically assaulted, spit on and blamed for the pandemic. Officials are now noticing “abuse” and “poor treatment” of staff at local doctor’s offices, particularly when the topic of COVID-19 vaccines comes up.
“It’s a really heated, incredibly sensitive topic,” DeClue said. “Obviously, we’re going to keep reinforcing and encouraging vaccination. But unfortunately, yeah, it’s come to a point now where it has become really a trigger for a certain population.”
However, officials are continuing to urge people to get vaccinated and their booster shots when they become eligible. Currently, 62% of eligible Bartholomew County residents are fully vaccinated — meaning that some 29,400 eligible people in the county have so far not obtained their shots, state records show. And just 56% of Bartholomew County residents who are eligible for a booster shot have gotten one.
Bartholomew County is trailing the national vaccination rate, with 68% of eligible people now fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 81% of eligible Americans have received at least one dose, compared to just 64% of eligible Bartholomew County residents.
“We’re still seeing the vaccine make a huge difference in not just hospitalization, but the type of hospital stay that someone has,” DeClue said.
