Indiana’s daily Covid-19 numbers have increased from a high of 1,000 per day in late July to over 5,000 as reported on Saturday – less than four months later.
In fast, Indiana’s Covid-19 cases have doubled in about three weeks.
The 5,007 new infections reported by the Indiana State Department of Health on Saturday were the state’s highest single-day level of the pandemic, eclipsing the previous record of 4,714 new cases officials reported Friday.
Sunday’s numbers dipped a bit to 4,689.
The virus appears to be spreading more rapidly than ever before.
At the end of July, Indiana first hit 1,000 new cases. Two months later, the state doubled that number in mid-October, topping 2,000 cases in one day.
After seeing the needle tick up past 3,000 last week, Indiana went to over 4,000 four days last week with new cases doubled in about three weeks.
Indiana Governor Eric J. Holcomb said following his re-election on Tuesday that he’s not making any changes to state policy on handling COVID-19 and staying at Stage 5.
The department’s daily update of its coronavirus dashboard showed 2,036 Hoosiers are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 – the largest number Indiana has seen since officials began releasing those counts last spring, early in the pandemic.
Of those hospitalized, 559 are in intensive care.
More than 71% of Indiana’s intensive care unit beds are also in use, according to the Health Department, leaving 621 beds available as of Thursday.
Indiana’s 43 new COVID-19 deaths reported Saturday raised the state’s pandemic death toll to 4,592, including confirmed and presumed coronavirus infections.
Today’s results stem from a record of 50,610 tests submitted in the last 24 hours.
To date, 1,794,398 unique individuals have been tested in Indiana, up from 1,777,105 on Friday.
A total of 3,167,518 tests, including repeat tests for unique individuals, have been reported to the state Department of Health since Feb. 26.
Holcomb, who won a second term as governor on Tuesday by defeating Democrat Woody Myers said Wednesday he’s not making any changes to the state’s COVID-19 policy, including no statewide closure of schools.
Myers, a former state health commissioner, had called for tougher anti-virus actions as Indiana’s COVID-19 hospitalizations, deaths and new infections climbed steeply since nearly all state restrictions were lifted in September.
