Declines in COVID positivity, hospitalizations delight Indiana leaders
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — State health leaders said Thursday in a videoconference that perhaps the most important number for Hoosiers to watch is the positivity rate for coronavirus tests.
That rate by Thursday had fallen below 11%, down from 16% at the beginning of the year.
Leaders also said during Gov. Eric Holcomb’s coronavirus briefing on Thursday that the state is also seeing a decline in hospitalizations and daily hospital admittance from COVID-19 patients.
Holcomb and the state’s health commissioner, Dr. Kristina Box, said it’s impossible to pinpoint precisely what is happening to bring the declines, but they attributed it to restrictions on big events, getting past the holidays when families got together against the recommendations of health officials.
Leaders also said more people are practicing better hygienic practices and getting vaccinated.
Holcomb said, “We’re starting to see reason for optimism as we look across the state of Indiana and the positivity rate tick down, tick down, tick down.”
Box said, “I think it’s very hard to sort out what percentage it is. I do think there’s no questions some of the restrictions we’ve placed have really helped.”
Indiana is allowing Hoosiers 70 and older to sign up for free vaccinations, but state leaders have seen no indication when additional doses are coming to Indiana. Once more vaccine arrives, the next group to get shots will be the 65-to-69 age group.
“We want to protect our most vulnerable Hoosiers and age has been the biggest contributor to hospitalizations and death from COVID,” Box said.
The state’s chief medical officer, Dr. Lindsay Weaver said her No. 1 goal is to not cancel any scheduled appointment. Currently, almost every appointment has been booked out for the next few weeks.
“The system we have in place is to insure that we don’t have to do what other states have done — cancel vaccine appointments due to no doses available,” Weaver said. “So while you may be frustrated at the availability of appointments, you may rest assured that our goal is to insure that there will be a dose for you when you arrive.”
The state has been averaging about 80,000 vaccinations a week.
Indiana State Department of Health reported Thursday that 64 more Hoosiers have died from COVID-19, for a total of 9,218. A total of 601,937 Hoosiers have tested positive for COVID-19.