DECATUR, Ind. (WFFT) -- In Northeast Indiana, Adams County is on the low end of total COVID-19 cases, with just 141 as of Tuesday but is top in the state when it comes to positivity.
Currently, the positivity rate, meaning the percentage of COVID-19 tests that come back positive, sits at 22.8% in Adams County.
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Meaning for every 10 COVID-19 tests analyzed from the county, at least two of them are coming back positive.
Adams County public health officer Dr. Michael Ainsworth says a positivity rate below 5% is ideal, but over 10% is worrying.
As Adams County is over double that, he’s concerned the virus may spread to quickly.
"Our concern is that this spread has been exponentially growing outward from people moving on and then spreading that on to others," Dr. Ainsworth said. "So, we’re going to need a few more days to tell us if that’s actually happening."
Ainsworth believes part of the reason why they’ve had a recent jump in positivity is because one family gathered for a birthday, then went to a bar called "The Wet Spot" in Decatur, then downtown to an open air concert.
Out of that group, Ainsworth says up to 19 people have tested positive.
Co-owner of The Wet Spot Chris Johnson says she was concerned when she found out, especially because some of those who tested positive were cousins of her other co-owner.
Johnson said her initial reaction was, "Hopefully that everybody was ok and, you know, there wasn't some widespread issue."
MORE: Read more about the Adams County mask mandate here
The group stayed in a private room next to the bar, never entering the main bar area.
Even after the employees involved tested negative, she still took extra precautions on top of providing hand sanitizer, spreading out seats and extra cleaning they’ve been doing before.
"I did start asking people to wear masks into the building," Johnson explained. "Making sure our employees are rain masks at all times. Sometimes you remove it to stock beer or something, but, you know, I'm making sure they're adamant about it."
COVID-19 spread has become so concerning, North Adams Community Schools is all virtual until the end of August and the county health department issued a mask mandate today, starting Aug. 19 for anyone over the age of two.
Ainsworth is hoping the community steps up to keep others as healthy as possible.
"It’s going to take an effort on the part of the community to do what they can to slow this down, which means we need to wear masks, they need to social distance, and they need to be better about hand sanitizing."
