Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb on Friday said he planned to extend the state’s stay-at-home order until May 1.
The existing order, enacted to slow the spread of COVID-19, is set to expire on Monday. Holcomb said he would issue the new order Monday.
Indiana has been under a stay-at-home order since March 25. The first order covered a two-week period and was extended another two weeks with a more restrictive order on April 6.
The existing stay-at-home directive limits business operations to only those deemed “essential,” such as hospitals, doctor’s offices, police stations and fire stations, and outlines rules for retailers “providing the necessities of life,” like grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies.
During Friday’s daily press briefing, Holcomb said the new order coming on Monday is slightly shorter than two weeks to continue to allow state officials to be nimble and will adjust some guidelines.
“That’s not to say that we’re going to pull up immediately after that,” Holcomb said. “It just means it’s going to allow us to make some changes or some tweaks, some accommodations as we see appropriate around the state of Indiana.”
For example, one change that is expected to be made in Monday’s order is allowing hospitals to return to doing some elective and non-urgent surgeries. Holcomb had previously urged hospitals to delay all of those procedures to conserve resources for handling COVID-19 patients.
“We’re at a phase where we’re planning the safe reopening of sections of our economy,” Holcomb said.
Holcomb did not provide other specific changes that will be in the order.
But he did clarify that Indiana is not “anchored to” the same re-opening timeline as other Midwest states, despite the partnership with six other states that was announced Thursday.
“It just means we’re being good neighbors, and we’re going to share the information about where we are and how we’ll manage inside of our state,” Holcomb said.