Eric Berman Profile picture
Apr 29, 2020 22 tweets 6 min read Read on X
.@GovHolcomb's daily #coronavirus briefing begins. @StateHealthIN Commissioner Kris Box is back after a 2-day absence.
Holcomb's briefing tomorrow will go forward, but he won't be in the governor's office; he's joining his predecessor, @VP, for a visit to the Kokomo @GM plant, which has begun making ventilators.
Box: @kroger will begin drive-thru #coronavirus testing in Fort Wayne tomorrow, and is working to add sites in Indy.
Box: Indiana has required a decontamination machine to allow reuse of #N95masks by health care providers. She says masks can be cleaned and reused up to 20 times.
Box: ISDH has taken over contact tracing for 16 county health departments, and is assisting others.
Box: on average, patients have interacted with 10 people who need to be contacted by health officials to get them to isolate for 14 days. Many don't respond to phone calls from unfamiliar numbers -- "I know I wouldn't" -- so state is now reaching out by text and email too.
ISDH has previously warned about scam texts telling people they've had contact with #coronavirus patients. (Don't click the link.) ISDH texts will ask people to call the health department.
St Joe County deputy health officer Mark Fox: it'll be a great help to contact tracing when test results are immediate. He says lag time is down to 1-2 days, but that's enough time to make it hard to chase down patients they need to contact.
End of Box and Fox. Please please please let the next speaker be from Knox.
Holcomb shouts out a Pulaski County sewing circle which has been making masks, and leaving them out on the porch for people who need them to take one. And with that, on to Q&A.
Holcomb says he's not going to question Trump order classifying meat-packing plants as essential; he notes he said that weeks ago himself. But he and Box say workers still need to be kept safe, even if that means lower production.
Q: Do you honestly believe the largest single-day sporting event in the world (the #Indy500) can go forward on new August date? Holcomb: "It very well could."
Holcomb on being able to hold 500: "That's what we're working toward...that's why we're asking people to sacrifice so much at the outset." Notes that applies to dozens of other events large and small.
Holcomb: "Let's not be delusional about this: we're going to have more positive cases, month after month after month after month. This is about, how do we manage it?"
Box: gyms have been a big subject of discussion, because with sweat and equipment, they're "classic places to get infected." Nothing on where they'd fall on the timeline of reopening businesses, but there would have to be precautions.
DWD Commissioner Fred Payne: DWD will issue guidance to employers on their responsibilities if they reopen and workers say they're not comfortable risking infection by coming back. Iowa's gov announced anyone who refuses to come back will lose eligibility for #unemployment $.
Payne says the #CARESAct makes clear unemployment is for workers who are unable to work because of #coronavirus. He says how that rule is interpreted is of great concern to both employers and workers.
Holcomb: "If you're not ready to open, don't." When state lifts restrictions, it'll be in form of telling businesses they *can* reopen, not that they must. (He's still not saying to what extent restrictions will be loosened on Friday.)
Box: hospitalization rates are down in all ISDH districts except the one which includes the Logansport Tyson plant, an indicator that loosening of restrictions may be possible. She says number of positive cases is not a good metric, because more testing is going to = more cases.
Holcomb: "To be blunt: If you're 65 or older, with underlying health conditions, you're going to be living in a new normal for a long time." Path forward is about putting protections in place, which will, as he's said before, come in stages.
Dept of Correction chief medical officer Kristen Dauss: after talking with Ohio about mass testing of prisoners there, IDOC is continuing with its policy of targeted testing. She says more "strike teams" were sent out today.
Dauss says it's a given that there will be higher infection rates in large-group settings like prisons, but mass testing just gives you a snapshot of where everyone is on that day.

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More from @EricBermanIN

Jul 25, 2022
Halls outside the Senate chamber where #abortion hearing is taking place are jammed with protesters. Chanting is audible in chamber.
Sen. Sue Glick (R-LaGrange) predicts amendments and discussion of possible criminal penalties. Abortion opponents have objected to the lack of enforcement provisions.
Testimony has begun. First witness is a woman raped twice as a teenager, urging legislators not to minimize the trauma accompanying sexual assault.
Read 12 tweets
Jul 25, 2022
Nearly all of the 40 #INLegis Democrats are meeting with @VP at the Indiana State Library to discuss the #abortion bill. First Senate hearing is this afternoon.
.@VP Harris: #INLegis “on the front lines of one of the most critical issues in America today.”
Harris: Dobbs ruling “has already created a health care crisis in America….We are seeing many states attempting to criminalize heath care providers.”
Read 5 tweets
Feb 11, 2022
2,839 new Indiana #coronavirus cases, with 9.4% of today's batch of tests positive. The 7-day positivity rate, which runs a week behind, continues a two-week plunge to 18.3%, still in @StateHealthIN's high-risk zone but lowest since Jan 3. Cases are down 60% from last week.
108 newly reported Indiana #coronavirus deaths, half from the last week but with five dating back to 2021. The death toll rises to 21,299. IDH has also identified one more presumptive #COVID19 death, for a total toll of 22,137.
Indiana #COVID19 hospitalizations drop below 2,000 for the first time since Nov 27 (and lowest since two days before that), at 1,932, down 104 from yesterday. Of those, 392 are in intensive care, 25 fewer than yesterday and fewest since Nov 21. The state has 300 open ICU beds.
Read 5 tweets
Jan 19, 2022
All 92 counties are now rated red (high risk) on @StateHealthIN's weekly risk score.
16,502 new Indiana #coronavirus cases, 2nd-highest total ever, but 3rd week-over-week drop in 5 days.

24.3% of today's batch of tests were positive. The 7-day positivity rate, which runs a week behind, holds steady at a record 30%. It's the 1st time since Dec 26 it hasn't risen.
118 newly reported Indiana #COVID19 deaths, all but 13 in the last five days (but with one late report from 2021), push the death toll to 19,761. IDH has retracted three presumptive #COVID deaths, for a total toll of 20,500.
Read 5 tweets
Jan 18, 2022
Debate begins in Indiana House on final vote on bill limiting employer #vaccinemandates.
House Majority Leader Matt Lehman: "This bill is not about the vaccine itself; it's about the people affected" by mandates. #INLegis
Lehman points to nurses who testified they fear getting fired for being unvaxed, after working for 9 months of pandemic before #vaccine became available.

Last week's #SCOTUS ruling means those nurses aren't affected by this bill; they're still required to get vaxed or get fired.
Read 10 tweets
Jan 18, 2022
710 Hoosiers are in ICU with #COVID19, one fewer than yesterday and the fourth straight drop, but a jump in non-#COVID patients drops the number of open Indiana ICU beds to 218. Overall, 3,460 Hoosiers are hospitalized with COVID, 97 more than yesterday after a three-day decline.
12,126 new Indiana #coronavirus cases, with 25% of today's batch of tests coming back positive. The 7-day positivity rate, which runs a week behind, sets a 15th straight record at 30%.
77 newly reported Indiana #coronavirus deaths, all in the last week; this is the first @StateHealthIN report with no belated reports from 2021 (though there could be more later). The 2-year death toll rises to 19,643; counting presumptive #COVID19 deaths, the total is 20,385.
Read 4 tweets

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