ISDH: More than 600 new cases of COVID-19, 63 additional deaths
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — On Wednesday, the Indiana State Department of Health announced 605 more COVID-19 cases and 63 more deaths.
Currently, Indiana has 17,182 cases and 964 total deaths related to the virus.
There have been 91,550 tests administered in the state of Indiana, according to the department.
UPDATE 1:35 p.m.
The Hamilton County Health Department has released the number of deaths at long-term care facilities.
- Carmel Health & Living – 10
- Hamilton Trace – 7
- The Stratford – 6
- Brookdale Carmel – 3
- Heritage Woods – 1
- The Hearth at Windermere – 5
- Grand Brook Memory Care -2
- Harbour Manor – 3
- Maple Park – 1
ISDH has been providing daily updates here.
Officials in Indiana are not yet providing information on recoveries. Dr. 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 3,141,000 confirmed cases worldwide, with more than 948,000 recoveries and more than 218,000 deaths.
In a Wednesday virtual press conference, Gov. Eric Holcomb and other state officials provided updates on the virus in Indiana.
- Gov. Eric Holcomb started off his daily briefing announcing he would be with Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday when he visits the GM plant in Kokomo. The governor will continue to be involved with the daily briefing on Thursday from a different location.
- State health commissioner Dr. Kris Box thanked the public for their prayers and support while her father battles health issues in Terre Haute. She said her dad is stable and receiving great medical care.
- Box said the state has had 605 more people test positive for COVID-19, bringing the total to 17,181. 63 more Hoosiers have died, bringing the total to 964 deaths. 4,503 new tests have been performed, bringing the total to 91,550.
- Kroger announced it will be launching free COVID-19 drive-thru testing in Fort Wayne beginning Thursday. Kroger is also working on an additional site in Marion County.
- N95 respirators have recently been in short supply for physicians. Box announced Indiana has acquired what is called a Battelle CCDS Critical Care Decontamination System. The system will allow hospitals, EMS, dentists and other health care providers to conserve their N95s by sending them to a unique location to be decontaminated. The process was explained in a detailed chart during the press briefing. The state is hoping to begin the cleaning process late next week.
- The state will be expanding their new testing sites from 20 to 50. ISDH will be able to assist with testing in congregate living facilities such as nursing homes and prisons.
- Dr. Box detailed the state’s contact tracing process. Contact tracing is the process by which the state will help determine who an infected person has been in contact with in order to notify those individuals and help control the spread of COVID-19. Contact tracing is important because the spread of the virus must be minimized, especially among asymptomatic people, as businesses reopen or people return to the workplace.
- Local health departments have been conducting contact tracing. Health officials are contacting individuals who test positive and then a case investigation is launched. The investigation includes a phone interview that could take a couple hours. Health officials also educate the patients and notify them that they should isolate for 7-10 days.
- Box said ISDH is currently conducting investigations and contact tracing in 16 counties. She said each case often has about 10 additional contacts that need to be notified they need to quarantine for 14 days. If those individuals begin experiencing symptoms, they will be tested for the virus.
- Indiana will centralize all contact tracing for COVID-19 through ISDH for all Indiana counties. Centralized contact tracing will begin around May 11. Timely contact tracing will be critical to control the ongoing spread on a wide scale.
- Box said health officials will contact potential infected people via text or email asking them to contact ISDH. If the individual doesn’t respond within four hours, they will be contacted again. The individual will be asked to send a daily text or email of their symptom assessment. The individuals may be contacted to follow up on the information they reported. Case investigators, or tracers, will never ask for a Social Security number or request money or financial information.
- The cost of the contact tracing in the state is estimated to be about $43 million per year.
- The ISDH contact tracing will allow local health departments to focus on follow-up or tracing that requires work in their communities. The local health departments will still be notified about all positive cases. Their resources will be put to use focusing on tracing in long-term care facilities or employers, such as manufacturing facilities. Local health departments are better suited for connecting isolated people with needed resources such as help getting food or medication.
- Gov. Holcomb said he agrees with President Trump that the meat supply chain in the country should be open. “We want to make sure that our groceries are stocked. We want to make sure that you can go and provide for your families,” he said.
- Dr. Box said 50% of employees at a Tyson facility in Logansport did test positive for COVID-19. The company and the state have been working together to ensure the guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are met and that employees are safe. “Our goal is to keep the plants open, but not at the expense of the health of the individuals, the employees that work there,” said Dr. Box.
- Male Hoosiers have been dying from COVID-19 at a higher rate than women and more women are being tested than men. Dr. Box said women tend to be the leaders of health care within their own families, meaning they are more consistently getting checkups and choosing doctors for their family members.
- Box said 500 individuals will be trained to conduct the state’s contact tracing. “We feel very good and confident about how we’re standing up on this mission,” Gov. Holcomb said. These individuals do not need to have a college degree, but they do have to complete training.
- Gov. Holcomb said the Indianapolis 500 “very well could” happen on Aug. 23. When asked if he believed it would happen, he said he hoped so.
- Holcomb and Box did not provide a date when asked if and when gyms and fitness centers could open up. Georgia allowed fitness centers and gyms to open up last week. Box provided ideas for how gyms can be safely reopened, for example, ensuring equipment is wiped down, setting up barriers between machines and limiting the number of people allowed in the facilities.
- Commissioner of Department of Workforce Development Fred Payne said that once individuals are asked to return to work, they are legislatively required to return to work. Payne said under the CARES Act, benefits will remain available to an employee if he or she is unable to return to work due to COVID-19 and due to that employer not having available work for them. DWD is expected to provide more guidance on the topic of concern.
- Prior to COVID-19, Indiana had one of the highest rates of individuals in training programs in the state’s history. “We don’t see that slowing down,” said Payne.
- The National Association of County and City Health Officials is recommending that based on Indiana’s population, the state should be hiring around 2,000 people to conduct contact tracing. The state is currently only hiring 500. “We didn’t want to over hire to begin with,” said Box. She said the entire workforce at local health departments are involved with the contact tracing. If the state feels they need more, they will hire more.
- Dr. Box said every preparedness or health care region in the state is reporting less admissions to the hospital, less EMT runs and less usage of ICU beds and ventilators, expect for the region that includes the Tyson plant where 50% of the facility’s employees have tested positive for COVID-19.
- The contact tracing process will be kept private, Box said. The information will only be shared with local and state health departments and the individuals.
- Gov. Holcomb said he will elaborate more on Friday on the status of reopening the state. The current stay-at-home order is set to expire on Friday. No new guidelines have been announced.