Elkhart County went back into the highest COVID-19 alert level Wednesday after having dropped from red to orange last week.
For a county to be given the red color code, it must have 200 or more weekly cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents and a seven-day all-test positivity rate of 15 percent or more. Elkhart County’s numbers were 751 new cases per 100,000 residents and a 19.01 percent positive test rate.
Elkhart County Health Officer Dr. Lydia Mertz told Elkhart Truth the one-week drop from red to orange did not reflect reality, but was caused by a high number of college students getting tested before going home before Thanksgiving, which resulted in the county’s positivity rate dropping to 14.7 percent.
This week’s change in color codes had no effect on health restrictions imposed by Gov. Eric Holcomb or Mertz. Among the restrictions still in place are the mask mandate and the limit of 25 people at gatherings.
Read the full story from Elkhart Truth here.
