Gov. Holcomb extends ‘stay at home’ order to April 20, makes more businesses ‘carryout’ only
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Gov. Eric Holcomb on Monday extended the “stay at home” order through April 20.
Holcomb also said retail businesses still operating, with the exception of grocery stores, pharmacies and similar would move to the same operating procedure as restaurants, with carryout and minimal interaction, and no foot traffic inside facilities.
All Indiana campgrounds are closed, except for scenarios where they have recreational vehicles or cabins that people use as a primary residence, Holcomb said. The state parks remain open.
The Indiana State Department of Health says 4,944 Hoosiers have tested positive. The virus has killed 139 people. A total of 26,191 Hoosiers have been tested.
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Indiana health commissioner Dr. Kris Box said Indiana COVID-19 testing had significantly expanded over the course of about a month as additional labs come on board. On April 5, Indiana had 3,548 tests in one day, the highest number performed in one day so far. She said Indiana has a maximum ability to test 3,700 people per day.
Box said pregnant people with virus symptoms had always been included in the list of people who should be tested but she wanted to underscore the importance to test any symptomatic pregnant person, along with people with high body mass index and people with underlying health concerns that have symptoms.
Box said the hope is to be able to process more than 6,300 tests per day in the coming weeks. She said the state is working to increase testing in northern and southern Indiana.
Box also explained how Indiana’s testing compares to nearby states, per 100,000 residents:
- Illinois and Michigan: 460
- Ohio and Kentucky: 373
- Indiana: 336
Box said Indiana’s testing limits us knowing how many people in the state are sick, and that we are not alone in that. Indiana is expecting to get five point-of-care machines that each provide 100 tests.
With strict conserving of personal protective equipment, Indiana medical facilities are expected to use 50,000 masks per day.
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What Indiana has from the national strategic stockpile will cover 13 days, Box said. That does not include what hospitals already get from their suppliers, and hospitals do continue to get those supplies, but some hospitals have noticed a slowing in their own supply chains.
Indiana has distributed more than 80% of what the state has received to health care facilities, Box said, and have limited supplies remaining for emergencies. The state will be prioritizing what they have. Box said the state is not sure whether Indiana will be getting any more supplies from the national strategic stockpile. She said she cannot promise that she can replenish anyone’s PPE at this time.
Box asked that anyone who has personal protective gear and does not need should donate it. And if your company has the ability to produce PPE, the state would like you to. Holcomb thanked companies and individuals that have been producing PPE.
Nearly 1,000 people are hospitalized around Indiana with COVID-like illness, Box said.
As of March 30, there were 1,927 ventilators across the state in hospitals for use. As of Monday, 2,642 ventilators are available in hospital systems with another 455 identified for potential use if needed, Box said.
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Eleven residents at Bethany Pointe facility in Madison County have died as a result of COVID-19, Box said, calling it a “very serious outbreak.” Box said that from Day 1, her greatest fear as a health officer has been an outbreak in a nursing home.
ISDH has been working with the nursing home since March 26. The next day, ISDH tested individuals and confirmed three cases. On Friday, 20 residents of Bethany Pointe were in isolation and nine had died. Three employees are hospitalized, two of those critically ill, Box said. The state is facilitating the transfer of asymptomatic residents from the part of the facility where the outbreak occurred. On Sunday, ISDH tested all the residents of that part of the facility to ensure even asymptomatic patients who test positive would remain quarantined to that facility.
Box urged long-term care facilities to follow social distancing guidelines and infection controls guidance. She said any long-term care facility with ill employees or residents should reach out to ISDH immediately and that they would test all of the symptomatic individuals, people who live near those people and employees who have symptoms.
“It doesn’t matter if we were there just yesterday. We will come again today. If the situation changes, we will come again and again and again to help you because we know that you want to protect this population and we want to help you to do that. These are our grandparents and our parents. These are our friends, our neighbors, our church relatives. These are individuals that we want to protect,” Box said.
Box said she was aware of a nursing south and west of the Indianapolis area that had multiple infected individuals and said the state is engaged is any and all cases at nursing homes if the home notifies them.
Fred Payne, commissioner of the Department of Workforce Development, talked about two provisions of the federal CARES Act.
The Pandemic Unemployment Compensation portion provides an additional $600 in weekly benefits to those who are eligible to receive unemployment benefits under Indiana law. Payne said his department has been working to make that additional payment available to be sent electronically. The payment is effective as of March 29 and payable for any week of unemployment through July 31. And the payments will be retroactive to March 29.
The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance portion creates temporary unemployment insurance benefits for people who otherwise would not qualify for unemployment but who would be working if not for the pandemic. That includes people who are self-employed, independent contractors, gig economy workers and those who have a limited work history. Those people will also be eligible for the $600 benefit.
Payne says his department will be creating new systems to handle the PUA, so the timeframes for the PUC and PUA programs will differ. People receiving regular unemployment benefits should see the PUC benefits around April 20, but people expecting to receive PUC benefits will take longer, Payne said.
Effective at midnight and lasting until April 20, businesses deemed not to provide “necessities of life” must operate in the way restaurants and bar have been asked to. They cannot have customers inside their businesses but may continue business through online ordering or call-in service with curbside delivery or pickup. Those businesses include craft stores, beauty supplies and florists.
Stores that provide groceries, household needs and office supplies for people working from home are among the retail businesses deemed “necessities of life.” Grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations and convenience stores were included in this list, and they can remain open with a limit to the number of customers inside a store at one time and an adjustment to open hours to accommodate vulnerable population and to clean and restock.
Hotels can also stay open and operate because they are deemed an essential business.
Holcomb highlighted young people who were trying to support their communities, including a group of students on the south side of Indianapolis delivering groceries and other needs to people at high risk.
Fred Payne said the department did not have a “huge backlog” in processing claims and hoped it stayed that way. Unemployment numbers for the month of March are not yet available and numbers for the previous week will be released on Thursday.
Holcomb discussed the upcoming Easter holiday and encouraged people to continue to avoid gatherings, as you could unknowingly spread the virus.