Although Indiana’s hospitalization rate for COVID-19 still remains about 1-in-5, the number of new hospitalizations has been in a slow decline over the last 45 days. Screencapture
INDIANAPOLIS — The hospitalization rate for Hoosiers still remains at about a 1-in-5 people, but the percentage of patients requiring intensive care still remains low.
On Friday, Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box provided update hospitalization and recovery numbers for approximately 26,000 patients.
To that point, about 27% of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 had visited emergency care, with about 19% of the total requiring admission to a hospital.
Of those hospitalized, about 1,110 patients required treatment in the intensive care unit. That’s about 23% of all people hospitalized, but only about 4% of all COVID-19 patients.
Of the hospitalized population, about 72% have been discharged so far, with approximately 11% still in care and 17% of patients who were admitted had died.
Although the overall hospitalization rate has remained about the same, the number of admissions per day has been in decline. On April 1, the state had about 170 admissions, but that had steadily fallen off over time to 71 on May 12.
“We have made significant progress toward this goal,” Box said of the hospitalization rate, one of four factors the state is using to determine its next reopening steps on its five-step plan.
Box also gave some updates on other health measures being used including testing and contact tracing.
Testing has expanded significantly in recent weeks, with help primarily from 50 OptumServe testing sites that have opened around the state, which includes locations in Angola, Kendallville and LaGrange.
In the first six weeks of Indiana’s response, the state had tested around 59,000 people. But in the last month, the testing numbers have increased to more than 100,000 tests processed.
“Drive-thru clinics we are holding around the state have been a big part of this effort,” Box attributed in part to the rise in testing, with thousands tested at quick-response machines.
Box also updated about contact tracing, noting that the goal of hiring 500 contact tracers has been met and that all new positive patients were contacted within 24 hours of their positive result.
Contact tracers reach out to people known to have COVID-19 to try to gather information about any close contacts they may have had in recent days, then reach out to those people to inform them they may have been exposed and advise them to quarantine for up to two weeks as a precaution.
Box shared a few anecdotes from patients contacted who were appreciative of being contacted and were able to provide good information to tracers about other people who may have been exposed.
The preliminary results from an IUPUI Fairbanks School of Public Health study trying to estimate statewide exposure to COVID-19 showed about 2.8% of Hoosiers may have had the virus.
That study also pointed out that household members were 12 times as likely to get infected compared to community exposure.
Box said she wasn’t surprised by the low percentage of exposures, but said the data really showed that the state has done a good job in keeping transmission to small groups.
“There was a significant amount of transmission in that close contact ... but not nearly as much community spread,” Box said. “If the public works with us and gives us the contacts, we can control this by narrowing it down person by person.”
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