ISDH: More than 600 more COVID-19 cases; 41 additional deaths

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — On Thursday morning, the Indiana State Department of Health announced that 611 more positive cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Indiana. The department also said that 41 more people had died as a result of the virus.

Currently, Indiana stands at 9,542 positive cases with 477 total deaths.

According to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than 2,000,000 confirmed cases worldwide, with more than 528,000 recoveries and nearly 140,000 deaths.

Gov. Eric Holcomb, Secretary of State Connie Lawson and State Health Commissioner Kristina Box were among officials who gave updates midafternoon Thursday. Here are highlights:

• Gov. Holcomb began his daily press briefing to honor the life of fallen IMPD Officer Breann Leath. He said Leath wore three different uniforms. She served in the Army National Guard, worked at the Department of Corrections and served as an IMPD police officer. “She had a profound impact on everyone that she came into contact with. She had such an influence on her coworkers and inmates at our Department of Corrections.”
• A clip of a documentary was shared during the press briefing that showed the type of person Breann Leath was. It also highlighted her involvement with the Dept. of Corrections “Wee Ones Program.” It was announced the nursery at the Dept. of Corrections will now be named in her honor. It will now be called the Officer Breann Leath Memorial Maternal & Child Health Unit.
• “I hope that not just during this time, but in the coming days as we all together as a state work our way through this pandemic that we bring an equal amount of passion and compassion as Breann did everyday that she came to work,” said Holcomb.
• State health commissioner Dr. Kris Box went over the daily ISDH COVID-19 report. The state reported 611 new cases of COVID-19 and an additional 41 Hoosiers who have died. The state conducted 2,735 new tests with a total of 51,115 total tests. The state death total is now at 477.
• Box said nearly 45% of Indiana’s ICU beds are available. 23.8% of the ICU beds are being used for COVID-19 patients and 31.6% are being used for non-COVID-19 patients. About 76% of ventilators are available. 14.4% of ventilators are being used for COVID-19 patients and 10% are being used for non-COVID-19 patients. “These are amazing statistics,” Box said. “They’ve remained very steady and we’re very pleased to see that.”
• Box said the state is seeing an increase in numbers of inmates testing positive for COVID-19. “We have now greater than 80 offenders at Westville (Correctional Facility) that have tested positive,” she said. The state earlier this week reported that one inmate from Westville had died. Box said the state’s strike teams have been conducting testing at two other facilities. “Like any congregate living situation, our correctional facilities are ripe for rapid transmission of COVID-19.”
• Box also provided an update on the state’s Health Care Reserve Workforce. Over 14,000 volunteers completed the state’s original survey. More than 4,000 have been matched to requests within health care systems. “Those include 4,062 health care reservists and 382 student volunteers,” said Box. She said 6,454 volunteers are still available for work.
• More than 1,300 people have been tested in three days at four drive-thru locations in Evansville, Fort Wayne, Gary and Sellersburg. More than 2,200 individuals have been tested at these sites, including the drive-thru location at Merrillville High School. Box said they are still calculating the positivity rates from those drive-thrus and hope to have that information in the next few days.
• Commissioner of the Department of Workforce Development Fred Payne said the state is continuing to experience “extreme volumes of claims filings in Indiana.” Payne reported that 118,184 unemployment claims were filed in during the week ending in April 11. That number is down from 133,639 claims in the week before but still posted one of the highest weekly totals of the amount of claims filed in Indiana history.
• The state has made 432,740 unemployment insurance payments from April 1 to April 15. For the entire month of April 2019, 71,000 total claims were paid out.
• DWD has made a variety of changes to Indiana’s online filing system, known as Uplink. Payne said the Uplink system is “holding its own” with the extreme amount of claims. Payne said one of the DWD’s greatest challenges now is the high-call volume. So far, for the month of April, DWD has seen over 800,000 phone interactions. Wait times and dropped calls remain a challenge for the department. A new callback feature has been implemented to help.
• Payne said the Pandemic Unemployment Compensation payments are a bit ahead of schedule, but he said the Uplink system will be temporarily taken offline Thursday night beginning at 7 p.m. It will be offline until about 10:30 p.m. in order for the system to be updated. “We believe that this small inconvenience is worth us providing payments a few days earlier.” PUC payments will begin going out Friday.
• The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program is available for self-employed individuals and gig and contract workers. The system is still being phased in in order to process these claims. Payne said two processes are working simultaneously right now. One is the Application Acceptance process and the other is the Payment Disbursement process.
• DWD is still in the construction phase of the application acceptance process. The target date for opening up this part of the system is April 24. For individuals who have already filed under the current system, you will be receiving an email soon with further instruction.
• DWD is a little further behind on the payment disbursement process. A target date for release of this system is May 4.
• DWD is planning virtual job fairs in conjunction with its regional offices across the state. You can learn more about those at www.dwd.in.gov and scroll down to the DWD News section for a list of the job fairs and other relevant information. If you are looking for open job postings visit www.indianacareerconnect.com.
• Secretary of State Connie Lawson said further recommendations to the Indiana Elections Commission will soon be made regarding the primary election that is now scheduled for June 2. The commission will meet virtually Friday afternoon. Zoom meeting info can be found on Indiana Election Division website.
• “These recommendations come after many discussions with county clerks, election staff, the state parties, the Indiana Election Division and they represent what we believe to be best practices for an unprecedented election cycle,” said Lawson.
• As of Thursday morning, over 70,400 voters have requested an absentee ballot. May 21 is the deadline to request an absentee ballot.
• Early, in-person voting will be available from May 26 through June 1. Absentee ballots submitted after Dec. 2, 2019 are accepted. Lawson said she is also procuring PPE for all 92 counties using vendors outside of critical health care supply lines.
• Indiana is applying for the Federal Election COVID-19 funds in the amount of $7.9 million. The money will be used to purchase cleaning supplies, masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, electronic poll books and general services. The supplies will be distributed to the counties.
• Lawson said they will be recruiting high school students, college students and recently unemployed to represent their party at the polls in an attempt to recruit younger election workers.
• Voters and reporters should expect delayed voting results.
• “We’re known around the country as one of the top (National) Guard states in America,” said Gov. Holcomb. “It’s never been more obvious on the ground in our state I think on a perpetual minute-by-minute basis like what we’re going through right now.” The governor thanked the National Guard for their work and response amid the pandemic.
• Gov. Eric Holcomb on Thursday said he expects Indiana to experience a reopening in early May. Holcomb said a number of Midwest states on Thursday “signed on to jointly” make sure that neighbors are informed about the actions the neighboring states are taking when it comes to the reopening process. He said Indiana is communicating with Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois and Kentucky.
• Holcomb has also sent a letter to “major associations” in Indiana requesting input, recommendations and suggestions on modifications and changes that can be made to allow employees to feel safe to go back to work. He requested the associations make their recommendations by April 22 so the state “can in May hit the ground running.”
• Holcomb said he is looking at early May as a possibility of reopening the state. “I’m not putting a May 1 date out there, or May 2, or May 7 or May 8, but we are thinking early May,” he said.
• Holcomb said he will speak with Sen. Mike Braun about Braun’s appointment to the White House Reopening the Economy Committee. He said he will also be jumping on a phone call with President Donald Trump to learn more about what the president has planned for reopening the economy.
• Lawson was asked why the state was dedicating $7.9 million in federal funds to PPE and additional supplies rather than focusing on mail-in only voting. She said, “I think we are putting the $7.9 million to good use and we will continue to look at better ways to improve our elections.”
• Box said guards at infected correctional facilities will be tested and get appropriate medical care. She said she thinks the Department of Corrections has done an “amazing” job at being vigilant.
• Lawson continues to encourage voters to vote absentee. “The fact of the matter is that there are some people who feel very, very strongly about voting in person,” she said. A total of 8 days of in person voting will be available for voters in hopes of decreasing the amounts of people at voting locations.
• Lawson said some counties are having difficulties recruiting polling workers. “We’ve re-honed our election ads and they will be starting very soon.”
• “I have no reason to believe that we will have problems with the mail in November,” said Lawson in response to a question about the USPS potentially running out of funds in September. Indiana is not a vote-by-mail state, she said. “We will work around the postal service issues as they arise.”
• When asked about easing the opening of the economy Gov. Holcomb said it won’t go from zero to 100. “We didn’t arrive here overnight, we’re not going to get out of the woods overnight,” he said.
• Lawson said the state cannot afford to mail an application for an absentee ballot for every voter. “We felt we could spend our money wisely in other ways,” she said. Lawson said the state is about a week away from getting an absentee ballot application online in order to eliminate the process of calling the clerk’s office and requesting a mailed application.
• Dr. Box said the state has been unable to provide PPE to every single community health care worker, such as individuals going into homes to care for elderly or the sick. Box is encouraging essential workers to use their own PPE, such as homemade masks. She emphasized again how important it is for individuals to continue sanitizing and washing their hands.

The next briefing is expected at 2:30 p.m. Friday. It will air on WISH-TV, the WISH-TV app and the WISH-TV Facebook page.

ISDH has been providing daily updates here.

Officials in Indiana are not yet providing information on recoveries. Dr. Kris Box has said that information will be available as soon as medical codes are created that will offer COVID-19 recovery information, which the state does not currently have.

According to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than 2,078,000 confirmed cases worldwide, with more than 525,000 recoveries and more than 138,000 deaths.

Timeline of coronavirus in Indiana

Coronavirus links