Purdue University-Fort Wayne announced Thursday that beginning Monday, August 9, all students, faculty, staff and visitors to the university will be required to wear a mask indoors on the campus, regardless of vaccination status.
The decision was made by university leaders in coordination with the PFW Ready Committee, citing “rapidly rising COVID-19 case counts in Indiana and Allen County caused by the Delta variant and the CDC’s new face mask guidance for fully vaccinated individuals” as the reasons.
In a statement Thursday, the university calls it a “temporary” change that will be re-evaluated in two weeks on Friday, August 20.
Those case counts in northeast Indiana have now led to more than four times the number of area residents hospitalized with COVID as there were a month ago.
The area’s 7-day positivity rate is now up to 7.3 percent, and an additional death was reported Thursday in DeKalb County.
COVID patients are now taking up more than 16 percent of the area’s ICU capacity as well, according to the Indiana Department of Health.
Late Thursday afternoon, northeast Indiana’s WorkOne career centers announced they were going to be requiring masks at the area’s 11 sites.
Northeast Indiana totals for Aug. 5:
- Adams County: 7 new cases for 3,608 total. No new deaths for 56 total. 7-day positivity rate at 2.8%. Percentage of eligible population fully vaccinated 35%.
- Allen County: 117 new cases for 43,877 total. No new deaths for 701 total. 7-day positivity rate at 7.6%. Percentage of eligible population fully vaccinated 50.9%.
- DeKalb County: 12 new cases for 4,638 total. 1 new death for 86 total. 7-day positivity rate at 14.4%. Percentage of eligible population fully vaccinated 41.5%.
- Huntington County: 25 new cases for 4,340 total. No new deaths for 82 total. 7-day positivity rate at 8.5%. Percentage of eligible population fully vaccinated 45.8%.
- Kosciusko County: 6 new cases for 9,866 total. No new deaths for 124 total. 7-day positivity rate at 8.1%. Percentage of eligible population fully vaccinated 38.8%.
- LaGrange County: 1 new case for 2,792 total. No new deaths for 73 total. 7-day positivity rate at 8.1%. Percentage of eligible population fully vaccinated 23.6%.
- Noble County: 5 new cases for 6,088 total. No new deaths for 91 total. 7-day positivity rate at 8.4%. Percentage of eligible population fully vaccinated 37.5%.
- Steuben County: 11 new cases for 4,170 total. No new deaths for 61 total. 7-day positivity rate at 9.1%. Percentage of eligible population fully vaccinated 44.9%.
- Wabash County: 7 new cases for 3,749 total. No new deaths for 84 total. 7-day positivity rate at 4.8%. Percentage of eligible population fully vaccinated 39.3%.
- Wells County: 7 new cases for 3,073 total. No new deaths for 81 total. 7-day positivity rate at 4.2%. Percentage of eligible population fully vaccinated 41.1%.
- Whitley County: 8 new cases for 4,233 total. No new deaths for 45 total. 7-day positivity rate at 8.3%. Percentage of eligible population fully vaccinated 48.8%.
Sources include the Indiana Department of Health and local health department data.
