Bartholomew County’s death toll from COVID-19 has reached 200, a milestone that was once-unthinkable and tragic given that nearly 1 in 4 of those deaths came after safe and effective vaccines were widely available in the community.
Just over 21 months since the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Bartholomew County, state health officials reported Wednesday that the 199th and 200th lives lost to the virus in the county occurred Saturday.
The number of local coronavirus deaths, described by local health officials as “shocking,” is roughly the same as all influenza and pneumonia deaths in the county during a 16-year period from 2004 to 2019.
It’s more than twice the number of people who died in car accidents in Bartholomew County from 2013 to 2019, and more than all of the drug overdose deaths recorded in the county from Jan. 1, 2015 to Nov. 17, 2021.
And it’s more than the number of people enshrined on the Bartholomew County Memorial for Veterans in downtown Columbus, which includes the names of service members known to have ties to Bartholomew County and died while serving in the military since 1900.
“What probably strikes everyone is that we’re at about the one-year anniversary of vaccines being available, and we just have to know that a large number of those (deaths) were potentially preventable,” said Dr. Tom Sonderman, vice president and chief medical officer at CRH.
“That’s the true tragedy,” he added.
A total of 47 Bartholomew County residents have died from COVID-19 since state health officials made vaccines available to all Hoosiers ages 16 and up — including 43 since Aug. 1, when the delta variant tore through the community and sent hospitalizations at CRH to levels not seen since this past winter, according to the Indiana Department of Health.
The toll that COVID-19 has taken on older people in Bartholomew County has been particularly devastating, with residents ages 60 and up accounting for 88.5% of deaths. So far, the virus has killed 1 in 42 Bartholomew County residents ages 80 and up, according to the Indiana Department of Health and U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.
But not all of the virus’ victims have been elderly. Some were in the prime of their lives, or getting close to it — including nine Bartholomew County residents younger than 50 and one person younger than 20 whose lives were cut short by COVID-19.
Bartholomew County Health Officer Dr. Brian Niedbalski called the local death toll an “unfortunate milestone.”
“No matter what one’s beliefs are about this pandemic, we all need to remember there are families and loved ones who have been and continue to be affected by COVID.”
The 200th virus death in Bartholomew County came about a week after the U.S. death toll surpassed 800,000, and as Jackson County appears on the verge of a grim milestone of its own — 100 deaths.
The number of U.S. deaths, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of Atlanta and St. Louis combined, or Minneapolis and Cleveland put together, The Associated Press reported. It is roughly equivalent to how many Americans die each year from heart disease or stroke.
The United States has the highest reported toll of any country, according to wire reports. The U.S. accounts for approximately 4% of the world’s population but about 15% of the 5.3 million known deaths from the coronavirus since the outbreak began in China two years ago.
The true death toll in the U.S. and around the world is believed to significantly higher because of cases that were overlooked or concealed.
It also comes as Indiana’s death toll appears poised to pass Japan’s — a country with more than 18 times the population of the Hoosier State. The World Health Organization reported 18,381 coronavirus deaths in Japan as of Wednesday, compared to 18,057 in Indiana as of Tuesday.
But the death toll is just the “tip of the iceburg” of the virus’ impact on the local community, CRH officials said.
Over the course of the pandemic, 13,439 Bartholomew County residents — nearly 1 in 6 — have tested positive for COVID-19, leading to 3,099 emergency room visits, 1,255 hospital admissions and 159 people requiring treatment in an intensive care unit, according to the Regenstrief Institute.
And as Bartholomew County prepares to ring in the new year, dozens of people remain hospitalized with COVID-19 at CRH, the vast majority of whom refused to get vaccinated.
“It’s easy to count the deaths,” said Dr. Slade Crowder, CRH vice president of physician enterprise operations and associate chief medical officer. “… Think about the people who’ve been hospitalized and harmed. I mean, even just friends of mine I see at a party and they can’t smell still and it’s impacted their lives, or kids who have continued wheezing and (have) shortness of breath and they can’t participate in sports.”
“Those deaths are the tip of the iceberg for all the other people who have had their lives changed and impacted by (the virus),” Crowder added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
