Health officials now say the Delta variant of COVID-19 is as easily-caught as the chicken pox. And the variant has jumped to nearly 95 percent of all Indiana’s new cases of the illness.
On Friday, state health officials again urged Hoosiers to mask up as cases rise again, driven largely by the Delta variant and stalled vaccination rates.
In northeast Indiana, four counties saw double-digit increases in COVID cases reported Friday from Thursday, in Allen, Huntington, Noble and Steuben counties.
Steuben County reported an additional death from the illness, one of six reported statewide.
Hospitalizations in the area were up to 84, of the 755 total statewide. There are currently COVID patients in more than 11 percent of the area’s ICU beds.
There was no change in the area’s standings on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard for community spread.
Most of the state is no longer in the “blue” or best category for COVID spread, and the number of counties moving into the second-worst or “orange” category is growing.
Vaccination data was not available Friday afternoon due to updates and corrections to the state’s vaccination dashboard.
