Thread by @EricBermanIN

.@GovHolcomb's weekly #coronavirus briefing is about to begin.

Underway, after a 3-minute technical delay. Holcomb opens by announcing $10M in grants to arts organizations, details to follow.

Moratorium on evictions, foreclosures, utility disconnects will be allowed to expire next Friday. Holcomb notes there are various assistance programs for those in need.

Those programs include CARES Act-funded rental assistance, to which the state is adding money, for a total of $25M available.

Indiana #coronavirus hospitalizations up 55% since low point June 26.

.@StateHealthIN Commissioner Kris Box: "I continue to believe that our schools can safely reopen" by following precautions (masks, hand washing, staying home if sick). That doesn't mean schools will be COVID-free; she says schools, and parents, need to be watchful.

Box: there's no one single metric for when it's okay to open/needed to close. She says one of the most critical steps is for students (or teachers) who know they have symptoms to stay home.

Box: "Having a case of COVID in a school should not be a cause for panic or a reason to close. It's a reason to take action" to ensure outbreak is traced and contained.

.@LGSuzanneCrouch, an infrequent participant in these briefings, is at the table to go into detail on the $10M in arts grants. Applications open Monday; the money is from the #CARESAct.

Crouch's office oversees the Indiana Destination Development Corporation, which is administering the grants.

Nearly half the applications for rental assistance program have come from Lake, St Joseph, Allen, Tippecanoe and Vanderburgh Counties. (Marion County has its own, separate program, also funded by the #CARESAct.) The state is now averaging about 400 applications a day.

Gov. Holcomb dress code update: after a few more formal appearances, we're back to the suit jacket-and-T-shirt combo. Today's shirt reads "Grace and Courage."

Along with rental assistance program, the state has set up a program to facilitate out-of-court settlement talks between landlords/lenders and tenants, in hopes of averting evictions/foreclosures.

Box: ISDH is weighing what it's allowed to release regarding #COVID cases in schools without violating privacy laws.

Holcomb dismisses former Lt. Gov John Mutz's charge that states (like Indiana) not expanding #MailInVoting are caving to intimidation by President Trump. He says masks will be required at polls, and adds there's not one case of anyone who caught the virus at the polls in June.

Holcomb notes #earlyvoting runs four weeks, giving people the opportunity to avoid lines at the polls.

Holcomb: "We deserve to have safe, secure options to vote. We also deserve to have results on Election Day. It's Election Day, not Election Month."

Box: Inevitable there will be COVID cases related to high school sports where contact is unavoidable, like wrestling. But she says fans *can* avoid infection, by wearing masks and #socialdistancing.

Holcomb says he's awaiting an advisory opinion from @AGCurtisHill regarding who can vote absentee. Unclear what the parameters of that question are or who sought the opinion, but Holcomb says he expects an answer by Labor Day.

Holcomb clarifies: not an advisory opinion, but a federal lawsuit in which the AG's office is representing the state.

Box: Indiana not joining governors working with Rockefeller Foundation on rapid-return #coronavirus testing, at least yet. Indiana has spent $40M on its own lab, and "still looking at all options for expanding testing."

Indiana Vote by Mail sued a week after the primary to seek a court order to expand #AbsenteeBallots for the November election. The case is before federal judge James Hanlon, a Trump appointee named to the bench in 2018.

Holcomb: allegations of potential fraud "not part of our thought process whatsoever" in not expanding mail-in ballots. He says there's no indication there was any fraud with mailed ballots in June; his issue is that there are various #earlyvoting options already.

With universal mail-in balloting in June primary, half of all votes were absentee. Under more restrictive state law, one-third of 2016 votes were absentee.

Box: "I understand the fear" people have about #schoolsreopening. She says the focus needs to be on protecting those students and faculty who are at highest risk from infection, so that they're able to continue learning/teaching.

Holcomb adds he has concerns about handling the volume of #AbsenteeBallots if the state were to allow all voters to choose that option. As he said last week, November is different from the June primary because the state isn't under lockdown.