Rise in COVID-19 patients keeps Indiana from fully reopening restaurants, bars, other venues
LIVE: Click on the play button below to watch Mayor Hogsett to discuss the next steps in the reopening in Marion County.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Gov. Eric Holcomb said Wednesday that Indiana is holding steady on its four basic principles for recovery during the coronavirus pandemic, but won’t go to the final Stage 5 of its recovery plan.
Instead, all counties except Elkhart in northern Indiana will move to Stage 4.5 from July 4-17. Elkhart County will remain in Stage 4.
That means a two-week pause on increasing capacity in restaurant dining rooms, bars and entertainment venues as planned to start July 4.
The state has found the number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized and admitted daily has increased in the past week. Also, the daily positivity rate has ticked up slightly. He said the rises in numbers have not impacted the ability to care for those in need.
The governor noted, as he has previously, for Hoosiers to continue to take measures to curb the spread of the virus.
Here are limits in Stage 4.5:
- Dining room service will remain at up to 75% capacity as long as social distancing is observed. Stage 5 calls for them to open to full capacity.
- Bars, nightclubs and entertainment venues including horse racing tracks will remain at 50% capacity with social distancing practices. Stage 5 calls for them to open to full capacity.The entertainment venues includes bowling alleys, and cultural and tourism facilities such as museums and aquariums.
- Fairs, festivals, parades and other places of public amusement may resume at 50% capacity with social distancing practices.
- Conventions may resume with no more than 250 people. A health screening process is encouraged.
- Youth overnight camps may resume with employee and camper screenings, and face masks.
“So that said, all in all, we are managing our way through this, which has been a goal from the very outset,” he said.
Holcomb noted that some areas of the nation are seeing numbers increase more dramatically than Indiana’s.
“That just underscores the fact what we’ve said every week, all of us, that this virus is on the prowl, and in some places it’s gaining momentum. It’s not slowing down. That spread is not slowing down. It’s just doing the opposite, and that’s why you see a number of states — even though they maybe reopened recently — they are now going back and closing some of those facilities or closing parts of their economy. We don’t want to find ourselves in that situation, and so understanding that July 4 is right around the corner, where we celebrate our independence, we wanted to make sure we were all on the same page going into this weekend, as we were looking to go from Stage 4 to Stage 5.”
Dr. Kristina Box, commissioner of Indiana State Department of Health, said Stage 4.5 isn’t pulling back rather just not going forward.
“We look around the United States and in the state of Indiana at our contact tracing, and we can see where individuals are getting infected and where they’re infecting other individuals. Oftentimes, that is in bars where individuals are not social-distancing. It is in areas where we’re inside and in close contact. It is in big groups that are getting together,” the health commissioner said.
Holcomb did not go as far as taking steps to quarantine people coming from other spots which are seeing record numbers or mandating masks in public.
Box worries a face mask requirement could backfire.
“Mandating masks may make a difference,” said Box. “But my concern is that sometimes it makes people more stubborn and stand their ground, ‘you’re trying to force me to do this.’”
The state’s four basic principals for reopening: monitor the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, retain the capacity to treat a surge of patients, have the ability to test all Hoosiers who are COVID-symptomatic, and have the ability to contract-trace all cases.
Box explained the rise in numbers. Hospitalization numbers had trended down from a peak of 1,749 patients on April 8 to 595 patients on June 26. After that date, hospitalizations started rising again, hitting 668 on Wednesday.
“As of June 25, we are seeing about 33 new COVID patients being admitted every day,” Box said.
The other three basic principles for reopening remain on track, the health commissioner said, although a number of Hoosiers still cannot be reached for contact tracing because their phone numbers are not correct or the people will not respond to the contract tracers.
Holcomb and Box said despite the pause in going to Stage 5, schools should continue to open as planned.
Regarding the Aug. 23 Indianapolis 500, Holcomb noted that Indianapolis Motor Speedway is “a massive piece of property.” He said physically distancing is easier as the venue, and there’s some time before that date arrives to make plans.
Elkhart County was excluded from moving beyond Stage 4 with encouragement from local elected officials. The northwest Indiana county has had 400 new COVID-19 cases in the last seven days, Box said.
On Thursday, at 10 a.m., Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett will provide an update about the next steps in COVID-19 restrictions for Marion County.
Other notes
Other highlights from Wednesday’s briefing:
- Dr. Daniel Rusyniak, chief medical officer of Indiana Family and Social Services, says weekly new cases of the coronavirus at long-term care facilities are down 77% and deaths are down 83% compared to the peak in late April. He credited the state’s “strike teams,” improved infection control, personal protective gear prioritization, and collaboration between the state and the facilities.
- Rusyniak said indoor visitation with loved ones at all long-term care facilities could resume by mid-July, with some facilities beginning indoor visitation as early as Saturday.
- The state premiered the video “Mask Up, Hoosiers!” to encourage mask use, especially among “the younger kids,” Box said. St. Joseph and Elkhart counties have mandated the use of masks, but the governor strong recommends them for the rest of the state.
- The state has supplied local health departments with new online tools to help with contact tracing, after some initial efforts were problematic or cumbersome, Box said.
- The next briefing on the coronavirus from the governor will be at 2:30 p.m. July 8.
- Box said during the July 8 briefing that she plans to have an update about select events that are still scheduled for the Indiana State Fair in August.
