Bartholomew County sees new COVID testing record, hospitalizations dip slightly

The number of COVID-19 patients taking up Bartholomew County hospital beds remain high, but not quite at the record level seen earlier this week.

The Bartholomew County COVID-19 Community Task Force released numbers yesterday, showing 65 hospitalizations for the disease on Wednesday, down slightly from Monday’s all-time high of 69. The numbers have stayed above 50 hospitalizations in the county for most of the past month.

During the worst of the pandemic surge last winter, there were only 59 local hospitalizations.

Indiana has set a new record level of hospitalizations due to COVID-19, with more than 3,500 people  hospitalized with the virus as of Thursday. Last week, the state broke a record with 3,467 hospitalizations, which exceeded a record from November of 2020 when 3,460 were in the hospital. Health officials say there are now just over ten-percent of ICU beds available across the state.

Bartholomew County did set a new record for positive test results, with 290 on Wednesday. That tops the previous high 283 positive test results on Jan. 12th.

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