Staff Report

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Department of Health has loosened some COVID-19 policies as the number of cases and deaths continues to decline.

Beginning Feb. 23, schools will no longer be required to conduct contact tracing or report positive cases to IDOH.

Schools will also no longer need to quarantine students who are exposed to a positive COVID-19 case, regardless of vaccination status or masks.

In the detailed statement on updated policies, a health department document casts the circumstances as being “A Time Of Transition.”

“While universal case investigation and contact tracing during the initial phase of the pandemic were justified as the phases of the pandemic evolve, public health experts agree this degree of response is no longer optimal,” the statement read in part.

You can see the entire pdf here.

Meanwhile, the number of counties with high transmission rates is falling. Kosciusko’s latest positivity rate is 15.1%, which keeps the county in the red category. Kosciusko is the only area county still red.

The number of COVID-19 deaths in Kosciusko County was at 216 Thursday afternoon, Feb. 17.

The chart shows how Omicron (green) became the dominant strain in recent months.