Miami County has seen more than 8,200 COVID cases since the start of the pandemic. Recently, they were on the watchlist with the potential to enter Emergency Level Purple due to an extreme number of cases and hospitalizations.

In the first week of 2021, they are no longer on the COVID watchlist but health educator for Miami County, Vicky Knisley-Henry says there could be several reasons for the decrease in cases.

“With the holidays, the lag would just be [because of] the virus incubation period. Also, reporting [cases]with the holidays…could also contribute to a lag in cases,” she explained.

Right now, Miami County is working to vaccinate those in Group 1A. So far, they say they’ve given 400 of the 700 doses they’ve received this far. But the future, right now, is uncertain.

“We’re still in the planning phase because we know [Group] 1b is coming, but we don’t know how much vaccine we’re going to get,” said Knisley-Henry. ” I know people have a lot of questions [but] we don’t have a lot of answer.”

Knisley-Henry did say they expect to have a better idea of the number of doses they will get in for the next phase by next Thursday, January 14.