Gov. Eric Holcomb describes Indiana as “on fire” in terms of COVID-19 cases per capita during a virtual press conference Wednesday in Indianapolis. CNHI News Indiana photo by Whitney Downard
INDIANAPOLIS — In terms of COVID-19 case numbers and positivity rates, Gov. Eric Holcomb told viewers of his weekly press conference that “the state of Indiana is on fire.”
“Every one of our 92 counties is red in terms of one of the ways we measure the number of cases per 100,000 residents,” Holcomb said Wednesday. “I don’t want us to linger in this neighborhood longer than we are.”
Counties receive a red designation if they report more than 200 cases per 100,000 residents and have at least a 15% positivity rate. This week, 36 counties were red and the remaining 56 were orange.
“This is the fourth consecutive week in which all 92 counties have been in red (with over 200 cases per 100,000 residents,” Kris Box, the state health commissioner, said about the spread. “Only two counties are even below 400 cases per 100,000 and we have seven counties with over 1,000 cases per 100,000 residents.”
To aid overwhelmed health care workers, Holcomb directed hospitals to postpone elective surgeries for three weeks, from Dec. 16 until Jan. 3, a move he made earlier in the pandemic to free up hospital beds.
Box said Wednesday’s number of hospitalized Hoosiers, 3,244, was an 84% increase over the hospitalization rate from the beginning of November. More than 6,200 Hoosiers have died.
Local health departments will no longer be allowed to grant exceptions for large events, which capped gatherings at 25 people for red counties and 50 for orange counties. Sporting events for K-12, college and professionals will be allowed to have 25% capacity and limited to parents and participants.
“We all want life to get back to normal but to go there we must continue to use the tools that we have at our disposal,” Box said. “That means wearing a mask, staying home and socially distancing. And, most importantly, making those hard choices around holiday gatherings.”
Even with the vaccine, Box estimated it would be six months before Hoosiers could safely worship together, tailgate at football games or gather at school and work without fear of an infection.
Lindsay Weaver, the chief medical officer of the health department, announced Indiana is expected to receive 55,575 Pfizer vaccine doses next week at its five pilot hospitals: Community Hospital in Munster, Clark Memorial Hospital in Jeffersonville, Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis and Parkview Health in Fort Wayne.
The Pfizer vaccine is expected to be approved Thursday followed next week by the Moderna vaccine.
The first doses will be used to inoculate an estimated 400,000 health care workers at the frontlines at hospitals and nursing homes as well as long-term care residents.
It’s unclear whether the doses will be used to give 55,575 Hoosiers the first half of the two-dose vaccine or if it’ll be used to give 27,787 Hoosiers both doses of the vaccine.
Administration sites, such as hospitals, CVS and Walgreens, can charge an administration fee to insurance but otherwise the vaccine will be free “because we do not want that to be a barrier to people,” Weaver said.
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