MONROE CO. – The Monroe County Health Department saw a sharp increase in COVID-19 case numbers at the end of last week, receiving 263 reports of positive COVID-19 cases on Friday. Further digging, however, showed that only about 20% of the positive cases were from April 2022.
Penny Caudill, Monroe County Health Department Administrator, stated “Most of the positive cases reported last week appear to be historical cases that were not reported, for some reason, during the last COVID-19 surge in December and January. We normally receive an alert from the Indiana Department of Health when this happens but did not receive one this time”.
Caudill says that the large jump in cases may affect the county’s COVID-19 Community Level ranking at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID Data Tracker https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home and move the county from low to medium level. Caudill expects that if this happens, it will be short-lived.
At the Medium COVID-19 Community level, the CDC recommends that those at a higher risk for severe illness talk to their doctor about prevention strategies, including wearing a mask. The CDC recommends that everyone stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccines and get tested if symptomatic.
Even if Monroe remains in the low COVID-19 Community Level, the number of positive COVID-19 cases is
showing an increase over the prior week’s results, with the increase backed by water sample results, per Caudill. “We
are watching the numbers carefully and will continue to do so, especially after last week’s festivities”.
