Indiana has passed Ohio and Kentucky in per-capita testing. While the state still trails Illinois, Michigan and the U.S. as a whole, its growth in testing has been close to keeping pace. Screencapture
INDIANAPOLIS — After trailing behind neighboring states, Indiana has passed Ohio and Kentucky in per-capita testing, but still trails other states and the U.S. rate.
The good news, however, is Indiana is keeping pace with those other states now after initially lagging behind.
Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box delivered updated per-capita testing rates for Indiana and neighboring states, an update to a similar report delivered two weeks ago.
On April 5, Indiana was trailing all of its neighbors, with about 300 people tested per 100,000. Indiana lagged a bit behind Ohio and Kentucky and was further behind Illinois, Michigan and the U.S. totals.
In an update on numbers as of Monday, Indiana now sits at 999 tested per 100,000, right about 1%.
That’s brought Indiana ahead of Ohio and Kentucky, which sit at about 800 and 700 per 100,000, respectively.
Indiana still trails Illinois, Michigan and the U.S., but the rate at which Indiana has increased its testing has been closely on pace with those other states.
Indiana’s per-capita tests have increased 663 per 100,000 since April 5, closer to Illinois (705), Michigan (681) and the U.S. (690).
Over the last few weeks, Box has directed health care providers to test anyone they think might be sick with coronavirus and the state has also been able to offer a few drive-thru sites equipped with rapid response machines that allowed about 3,800 tests in a week’s time.
Testing will continue to be a key component informing the state’s decision-making process, as Gov. Eric Holcomb has repeatedly said — even again reiterating on Tuesday — that data will drive the choices he makes.
“We’re going to be informed by the numbers before us day in and day out. We’re not going to try to get around the numbers,” Holcomb said.
“This is going to be a safety-first approach.”
And as the state moves forward, “contact tracing” — the ability to trace a case of COVID-19 backward and then reach the people who that patient was likely in contact with to test them for exposure — is a direction the state wants to go.
With limited testing capacity, the state has had to rely on trying to simply identify whether symptomatic people have COVID-19 or not, but as capacity widens, that greater testing will be critical.
That’s an approach that the state has taken with long-term care facilities so far. When a case or possible case is reported to the health department, state strike teams respond quickly and run extensive testing on residents and staff and work to quickly isolate the sick from healthy people.
On the topic of sources of infection, Box said early cases were being traced to large gatherings like weddings, funerals, conferences etc. As time has gone on, main sources of new cases are coming from the health care field, public transportation and, in some cases, grocery stores.
Holcomb chimed in to add that being able to identify the source of future infections will be a critical component in a reopened Indiana amid coronavirus.
“That’s where the tracing becomes, down the road more and more and more important,” he said.
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