There was an increase in deaths in Hancock County in the latest COVID data released by the health department.

Hancock Public Health is reporting 283 new cases, 24 new hospitalizations and 17 deaths* for the week of December 17th through December 23rd.

*The health department points out that six of those deaths are new deaths and occurred in the latest weekly reporting period and the remainder are from a backlog of cases.

The six people who died from COVID in the latest weekly reporting period range in age from 45 to 91 and four out of the six were not vaccinated.

There were two new deaths for the previous weekly reporting period of December 10th through December 16th.

Hancock County is averaging 40.4 new cases per day and cases per 100,000 is 368.16.

Community transmission in Hancock County remains “high” as defined by the CDC.

901 Hancock County residents have been hospitalized with COVID since the beginning of the pandemic and 195 have died from it.

The health department is urging everyone to continue taking COVID precautions over the holidays and to get vaccinated if they haven’t already.