IDHS: only four businesses required "additional education" about capacity limits under coronavirus order. Most complaints were unfounded, and no cases have progressed to fines or enforcement actions.
20,000 bundles of #PPE from state marketplace shipped to Indiana businesses so far; 70,000 more planned over next month.
30,000 new #unemployment claims, continuing to taper off from March explosion.
DWD Commissioner Fred Payne on record 16.9% #unemployment rate: leisure and hospitality industries alone lost 193,000 jobs in April, more than 1/3 total state job loss.
Payne: wait times for callers seeking #unemploymentbenefits have sharply declined. Most claims are paid within 14-15 days (exceptions require further investigation).
Holcomb slips in a plug for Crawfordsville HS senior @abbybannon_, playing a clip of the song she wrote for this year's graduating seniors. "America's going to hear a lot from Abby if she wants them to hear from her."
OMB director Cris Johnston on #spendingcuts announced this morning: "everything is on the table" for future cuts, including K-12 and higher ed. That's NOT part of today's order to state agencies to look for 15% cuts. Johnston says state will be watching what federal aid may come.
Holcomb, on Trump declaration today that he'll order #churches to open, notes Indiana's already are, as of May 8. (Gary and Indianapolis mayors have local orders which do place churches under mass gathering limits.)
Holcomb order notes virtual services are still preferable.
Southern IN reporter compliments Holcomb on his Madison Regatta mug. Which I choose to believe is an India Cooper tribute.
Box says the spike in cases in Elkhart County appears to be purely a result of more tests there; there are multiple testing sites in the county. The county has reported 128 cases the last 2 days, but the 9% rate of positive tests in the county is below the statewide average.
Holcomb says the coming decision (July) on whether to reopen schools in the fall or continue virtual classes will have no connection to whether school funding is cut to keep up with revenue lost to the pandemic recession.
Holcomb says the goal is to find spending cuts which don't interfere with delivering services; he said earlier that no cuts will be made which impede #pandemic response. Johnston says the state will be assessing what expenses are lower priorities.
This will be longest break between briefings since #pandemic began, since Monday is #MemorialDay. Holcomb says they considered adding a Tuesday briefing, but notes that virus data reporting goes way down after a holiday. So next briefing is Wednesday.
More context on Elkhart County: 61 new cases there, second only to the day before. But that's from 444 tests, so 13.7% positive. Overall 12.9% rate (not 9%; typo earlier) reflects higher rate of negative tests in past weeks. Both figures are below the state average of 14.6%.
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