.@GovHolcomb's daily #coronavirus briefing is underway. @StateHealthIN commissioner Kristina Box is again absent following the death of her father last week.
ISDH chief medical officer Lindsey Weaver with a reminder: 20 new #coronavirus testing sites open tomorrow at @INNationalGuard armories. Registration is open now.
Weaver: "This is a marathon, not a sprint....Just because the mall is open doesn't mean you need to go." In particular, if you're feeling sick, #stayhome.
Also launching tomorrow is the state's #PPE Marketplace, with the state acting as a matchmaker for small businesses to purchase Indiana-made sanitizer, masks, etc.
The marketplace is specifically for restaurants, retailers, offices and personal service businesses like hair salons. IEDC's Luke Bosso says it should be your source of last resort if you can't procure it elsewhere; they can only fill 10K orders the first week.
IN Restaurant and Lodging Association president Patrick Tamm: #CoronavirusPandemic has been "unbelievably painful" for industry. Indiana eateries have laid off 200K workers. They can resume dine-in service in all but 4 counties on Monday (3 by state order, Monroe by local order).
Holcomb: while 91% of #COVID19 deaths in IN have been 60 or over, younger people are "the perfect transmitters" of the virus. Critical for Hoosiers of all ages to follow #socialdistancing, wash hands, etc.
Holcomb says @VP called last night and praised IN's #reopen plan as the best he's seen. Weaver says expansion of testing capacity (104 testing sites now, 30 more opening next week) made ISDH confident in ability to reopen.
Holcomb: "I'm going to be like a skipping record all week this week": how Hoosiers respond to loosening of restrictions this week will determine state's ability to stick to his roadmap to loosen further in a couple of weeks.
Weaver notes we're still not testing people without symptoms (*mostly; some local programs, like Fishers, are doing that), but says state has ability now to test most people with symptoms.
Weaver: we don't get as much information out of testing asymptomatic carriers, because the test isn't as accurate.
Another Holcomb coming attraction: he says he expects to have an update later this week about how the food supply chain is being maintained with closures of meat plants across the country. The Logansport Tyson facility, he says, will reopen "in the near future."
More on #PPE marketplace: orders will ship out on Friday. Bosso says state expects fresh supply of #sanitizer that day as well and will reopen the marketplace next week.
Weaver: through yesterday, Indiana has not had any #coronavirus cases in #homeless shelters. State is keeping an eye on it.
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