.@IndyMayorJoe: Indy will follow state's Stage 4.5 to allow outdoor activities like festivals, effective next Thursday. But youth camps will remain closed.
Hogsett: any event expecting more than 1,000 people (see: Colts, #Indy500) must submit plan for approval to health dept.
BREAKING: Indy will require masks in public, effective one week from today.,
Marion County is fourth in Indiana to require #masks.
Hogsett: "This isn't complicated. It's a piece of cloth. It's a piece of cloth that can save lives. If you disagree, you are dead wrong, in the fullest sense of that expression."
Hogsett says Indy required masks in the 1918 #flu pandemic, and had a death rate of .3%.
With 679 deaths, the Marion County death rate among confirmed #coronavirus cases so far is 6%.
Indy #MaskUp requirement: anyone 3 and up must wear mask, unless a medical condition precludes it, effective July 9. Masks must be worn indoors unless you're alone or eating. Outdoors, not required if you can effectively social-distance (e.g. jogging), but required otherwise.
Health director Virginia Caine: people under 40 were 38% of cases in first month of pandemic. In the last week, that age group is 58% of cases.
Caine: IN #coronavirus cases are up just 2% last 2 wks -- but Michigan & Ohio have nearly doubled in that time, and Illinois and Kentucky are up 21% and 33%. "We have to understand we're just a plane ride or car travel away. We have to be conscious of what's going on around us."
Hogsett: one-week delay in effective date for #MaskUp requirement is in part to make sure people have time to get a mask if they don't have one.
Interesting q toward end of the Hogsett #MaskUp news conference: does the mask requirement conflict with state law on #opencarry of long guns?
The open carry statute is 35-47-2-1. I'm prepared to be corrected by @guyrelford, but I don't see anything in the law relating to masks.
Indiana counties with highest numbers of #coronavirus cases per capita (* = those requiring masks):
Cass
Elkhart*
Marion*
LaGrange*
(Cass County's rate is 3x Elkhart, due to the May outbreak at Tyson Foods. The county has had just one day with more than 6 cases since May 11.)
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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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.