Thread by @ISMAphysicians

.@GovHolcomb's weekly #coronavirus briefing about to begin.

Holcomb begins by noting it's #Indy500 weekend, with a plug for NBC's no-blackout coverage. (It's also on @93wibc. Just sayin'.)

$61M in previously announced school grants to help schools with e-learning capability is on its way out to schools in 81 counties.

Also headed to schools -- actually, already delivered to schools -- 2.4 million #masks for 574 schools which requested them. They received hand sanitizer as well.

Holcomb: Indiana will pay an $300 a week add-on for unemployment benefits, as authorized by Trump executive order; NOT the additional $100 a week in state-funded benefits.

.@StateHealthIN director Kris Box: statewide positivity rate relatively stable, but "Unfortunately, we're not seeing the decline that we'd like to see." Current average is 7.7%.

.@StateHealthIN will begin calculating and posting two separate positivity rates: one using unique patients only (as they've been doing), and one counting all tests (i.e., if you test negative 10 times, that's 10 negatives, not one).

Starting Monday, ISDH will begin adding positive antibody tests to its historical case count. The daily count will still reflect PCR tests.

ISDH is building a portal with school-based cases; hoping to have it available by mid-to-late September.

Reminder from Box: if you're instructed to isolate, you need to follow that for the full 2 weeks. There have been school cases where dozens of students and teachers had to isolate because someone came to school or practice.

Box: "We're going to be on this rollercoaster for a while, but we can make it a smoother ride" by masking up, and staying home if you have symptoms or are instructed to isolate because of contacts with someone who was infected.

$50M of $61M in school grants will go to equip 69,000 students with MacBooks, Chromebooks, MiFi personal wi-fi units, and other hardware to enable #elearning. Another 2,000+ devices will go to teachers.

One week left to apply for rental assistance program. Application portal will close at midnight next Wednesday. 30,000 applications received so far.

Box: testing goal is 10-12K tests a day. Today was about half that, reflecting typical Wednesday lag off the weekend. She says there were another 3K tests of repeat patients, along with the 6K unique patients.

Box: ISDH is looking for whether there's a specific issue behind 23.8% positivity in Adams County, highest in the state. They're testing migrant workers, but no evidence that's the source of the outbreak.

Holcomb says when he voted in person in the primary, everyone was socially distanced in line and no one seemed to have an issue. He says, as he has before, that no cases have been linked to primary voting.

Holcomb dismisses the idea of a #specialsession. Not weighing in on where #INLegis should hold the regular session; a study committee is examining whether it's feasible to hold session at the convention center or Indiana Govt Center. He says he's confident they'll work it out.

Box says surge in cases at @NotreDame can be traced to a big off-campus party. She says as IU, Purdue, Ball State, et al return to class, students need to make good decisions.

Holcomb adds that he supports Notre Dame for being "nimble, thoughtful and thorough" in planning.

Education adviser Katie Jenner: there were some schools which applied for tech grants but didn't receive them. 8 counties had no schools which applied; 3 counties had applications but none approved. Unclear how many rejections in the 81 counties where at least some were approved.

DWD Commissioner Fred Payne doesn't elaborate on why Indiana opted against the additional $100 a week state-funded add-on to unemployment benefits, saying only "we decided not to do that." He says no states have opted in so far, but says some are considering it.

Box: One major reason ISDH is dropping adherence to unique patients is that all neighboring states are doing it the other way. If Indiana followed their method, she says positivity rate would be 6.5% -- still not something she's happy with, but lower than official 7.7%.