Thread by @EricBermanIN

.@GovHolcomb's daily #coronavirus briefing is underway.

ISDH Commissioner Kris Box plugs the @Optum-run testing which began yesterday at 20 @INNationalGuard armories. "If you have symptoms, please, come and get tested." Same for high-risk groups.

Box putting on the doctor hat and laying down the law about what Hoosiers need to do: continue hand-washing and #socialdistancing. She says it's like a diet: if you go back to old habits, you're going to give back any progress you've made.

Box: "I know we're thinking about going out to eat or going out for #MothersDay. We need to remember this is the new normal. Not normal; the new normal."

Box taking direct aim at those who call the use of masks overkill. She notes masks protect others *from you,* and the droplets you expel without realizing it. She says if you're social distancing, or out for your run, you probably don't need your mask. But around people, mask up.

A lesson in mask protocol from Box: when you take it off, and leave it looped around your neck, those are your own germs it's getting. But if you take it off and put it on a surface, you've just picked up whatever's there.

.@LGSuzanneCrouch is in the briefing. I believe this is her 3rd appearance -- but the first time she and Holcomb have been in the gov's office together for it.

IN has reopened the Hardest Hit Fund for mortgage assistance. That fund was the state's foreclosure shield during the Great Recession.

IN has also formed 9-member "Destination Recovery Council" to assess how to revive hibernating #tourism industry once #CoronavirusLockdown is over.

43K new unemployment claims. That's the lowest weekly number since the lockdown began -- but 16 times what the state received the week *before* the lockdown started.

Box: ISDH hopes to present first round of findings from @FSPH_IUPUI randomized study of Indiana #coronavirus coronavirus spread sometime in first half of next week.

Box: Logansport Tyson plant "has pretty much implemented every step we asked them to" to get ready to reopen, including dividers between work stations.

The ISDH #coronavirus dashboard includes statewide numbers for #longterm care, but state has steadfastly declined to break it down by individual nursing homes. Box, asked if they'd at least release county totals, says "we will continue to provide aggregate data."