Business Leaders Get Coronavirus Briefing

Evansville IN

18 August, 2021

9:38 AM

Description

By Steve Burger, WNIN Aug. 18, 2021 Local business leaders concerned about the Delta variant surge held a town hall Monday to exchange information. The business leaders got a briefing over Zoom from Deaconess President Dr. James Porter on the current situation with the Delta variant. Porter says we can expect cases to rise above the previous COVID surges, and that this surge is putting higher numbers of young people in the hospital. "So there are more kids and young adults ending up hospitalized as a percentage than there were with the alpha variant." Lynn Herr with the Vanderburgh County Health Department gave the latest numbers on vaccines. Over eighty percent of eligible White county residents are fully vaccinated, but Herr says the rates among Latinos and other minorities are low. "It's only 2.4% that's been vaccinated. Our Black population is down to 6.3%" Other speakers said that more local businesses are beginning to require that their workers get vaccinated. Tuesday's virtual town hall was sponsored by the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership organization. Officials are calling for a safe, healthy Fall Festival this October. COVID-19 is blamed for deaths in Vanderburgh and Henderson counties as the delta variant continues to spread. Indiana surpassed 3 million fully vaccinated Hoosiers Friday. The milestone comes as the state sees a slight uptick – a little less than double – in the weekly average of Hoosiers getting their initial shot. WNIN is the NPR/PBS affiliate in Evansville, Indiana. We serve Southwestern Indiana, Western Kentucky and Southern Illinois from our multimedia facility located on the Ohio River in downtown Evansville. For the past several years, the recognized quality of our local news has placed us among the best small market radio news organizations in the nation.