NEWBURGH, Ind. — Warrick County Coroner Sarah Seaton said there have been two additional deaths related to COVID-19 in the county, both residents at a Newburgh nursing home.

The patients were an 83-year-old man and 92-year-old woman, both residents at The Village at Hamilton Pointe. These deaths bring the county’s total up to 29, with four from the general public, 12 residents of Hamilton Pointe and 13 of Signature HealthCare. 

Vanderburgh County’s total of confirmed COVID-19 cases was 242 Sunday, up two from 240, according to the Indiana State Department of Health’s statewide dashboard.

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Statewide, the number of cases rose Sunday by 487 to a total of 31,376 confirmed cases. The number of deaths across the state went up by 12 for a total of 1,824.

In addition, the ISDH lists another 152 probable deaths. Those are cases when a physician lists COVID-19 as a contributing cause of death but there are no positive test results recorded.

The state’s dashboard shows Warrick County at 164 confirmed cases, although the Warrick County Health Department’s dashboard pegs the number at 162. Of those cases, 42 are still active.

Gibson County has reported an additional death to a total of two coronavirus-related death, and Posey County still has none. The ISDH lists Gibson with 13 confirmed cases out of 373 people tested and Posey with 17 cases out of 342 tests.

The state dashboard shows that 5,900 tests have been done in Vanderburgh County and 1,261 in Warrick. But that is not a complete count. Neither the ISDH nor Vanderburgh or Warrick County dashboards include up-to-the-minute testing numbers.

Statewide, 220,801 tests have been reported, of which 14.2 percent have been positive.

The Vanderburgh County Health Department’s dashboard of local cases was completely down last week but has been up provisionally and can be reached, the health department says, by manually typing in www.yourvchd.org. 

The data wasn’t updated Sunday morning still listing data from Saturday: Of the 237 confirmed cases reported by the local health department, 203 patients have been medically cleared. That leaves 36 active cases with ongoing investigations. Vanderburgh County has had two coronavirus-related deaths. 

There have been 493 individuals identified as “close contacts” of people with coronavirus, with 340 of those cleared. The CDC defines a “close contact” as someone known to have been within six feet of a coronavirus sufferer for at least 10 minutes.

Of the close contacts, 153 people are still being monitored by the Vanderburgh County Health Department.

Hamilton Pointe

On Friday, three residents of Hamilton Pointe’s COVID-19 wing were transferred after four weeks of being cared for in isolation, a result of testing positive for the novel coronavirus. 

The nursing home had a celebration for the three. 

They were determined to be clinically recovered by a physician using a symptom-based strategy recommended in federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, said Shawn Cates, Hamilton Pointe’s executive director.

“We’ve really turned a corner,” Cates said.

He said Friday the facility expects approximately eight more residents will be returned to their regular beds next week. Like the first three residents, although they have been medically cleared, the nursing home staff is observing them for a few days longer to be sure symptoms don’t return.

Cates said 23 of the facilities’ residents remain in its COVID-19 wing for care. 

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