Thread by @WIBC_EricBerman

.@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.