Thread by @EricBermanIN

.@GovHolcomb about to begin his daily #coronavirus briefing.

ISDH Commissioner Kristina Box again absent for a family emergency. Today's fill-in is the department's chief medical officer, Lindsay Weaver.

Update on @IUPUI randomized #coronavirus testing sample: 3,774 people have now been tested. Their goal was to hit 5000-7000 by the end of the week.

Weaver announces contract with @Optum to open 20 #coronavirus testing sites, with goal of increasing to 50 next month. Optum sites will still be testing people with symptoms or from #longterm care facilities. Goal is 30K tests a week on top of what ISDH is doing.

First sites will be National Guard armories, with focus on areas where testing has been limited to date.

.@Optum started a testing program in California earlier this week.

Holcomb adds plea for people to respond to @IUPUI study if they're selected for it. (Again, it's a random study; you can't volunteer. Selected subjects have received postcards.)

Holcomb says he's spoken to @simonmalls CEO, but says he's given them no preview of what he'll do when he "edits" #CoronavirusLockdown on Friday, though he says it will include "guidance" for malls. @CNBC reports internal Simon memo plans to reopen 10 Indiana malls on Saturday.

Malls included in memo include Castleton, Fashion Mall, Circle Centre, Greenwood Park, Hamilton Town Center in Noblesville; outlet malls in Edinburgh and Michigan City; and malls in Bloomington and Lafayette.

Holcomb says he's been talking with university leaders about how/when/whether colleges reopen; more info there sometime next month.

Weaver says she does NOT recommend gloves, because most people don't know how to use them properly. She does recommend masks when you go out, wash hands, and don't grab your phone while in the store; if you do touch a contaminated surface, you'd end up getting it on your phone.

Holcomb says he won't make final decisions on what's next for #CoronavirusLockdown till Thu night, so he has as much data as possible; "the ink may still be wet" when he announces it at Friday's briefing.

Holcomb doesn't answer directly on what happens to @simonmalls plan to open 10 Indiana malls Saturday if restrictions remain in place. He says he's sure they'll open if they can, not just in IN but nationwide.

Weaver: @Optum contract is for $17.9M.

Weaver's hopeful some or all of $17.9M cost of @Optum testing deal will be covered by federal grants. State has averaged 22,000 tests a week; goal is to more than double that, with Optum performing 30,000 a week.

Weaver says IN has moved past Ohio and Kentucky in per capita testing in the three weeks since the date of a White House report showing Indiana trailing all its neighbors.

Per @10producerannie, Vigo County disputes the state's classification of one case as a #COVID19 death. Weaver suggests it's 1 of 91 "presumptive" COVID deaths listed separately, but if I understand q correctly, the inclusion of that 5th death predates addition of those deaths.