SlidesForApril10Governor Eric J. Holcomb today announced a task force to plan, administer and account for federal relief funds the state of Indiana receives from the CARES Act.
Indiana’s Economic Relief and Recovery Team will be chaired by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Cris Johnston and Secretary of Commerce Jim Schellinger.
A committee of business leaders with extensive public service background will advise the chairs.
· Al Hubbard, former economic policy advisor and director of the National Economic Council for President George W. Bush
· Luke Kenley, former Indiana state senator
· Ryan Kitchell, former OMB director
· Kristin Marcuccilli, Indiana Economic Development Corporation board member
· Becky Skillman, former lieutenant governor
The slides from today’s press conference are attached.SlidesForApril10
No new cases of Covid-19 have been reported by the Indiana State Health Department over the past 24 hours in Washington County. Also, no deaths have been reported in Washington County.
One new death was reported in Clark County, bringing the total there to eight.
Around the WSLM Listening area, there are now 23 total deaths.
There were 22 new Covid-19 cases reported in the area since yesterday.
In Indiana, there have been 556 new cases reported in the last 24 hours along with 55 new deaths.
There have been 2,907 new tests given around the state since Thursday.
Statewide totals are:
6,907 Total Cases in Indiana
300 Total Deaths in Indiana
35,040 Total Tests in Indiana
In the WSLM Listening area, totals today are:
Updated totals from around the WSLM Listening Area:
Lawrence County – 59 total cases (up by 3 from Thursday)
Jackson County – 57 total cases (up by 4 from Thursday)
Scott County – 12 total cases (No change)
Clark County – 104 total cases (up by 8 from Thursday)
Floyd County – 93 total cases (up by 5 from Thursday)
Harrison County – 50 total cases (down by 1 from Thursday)
Crawford County – 12 total cases (up by 1 from Thursday)
Orange County – 13 total cases (up by 1 from Thursday)
Washington County – 23 total cases (No change)
Total deaths caused by Covid-19 in the WSLM Listening Area include:
Governor Eric J. Holcomb and State Health Commissioner Kris Box, M.D., FACOG, today issued guidance for places of worship in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.
“During this time of uncertainty, faith is more important than ever, and I am deeply grateful to our religious leaders for their efforts to find safe and creative ways to serve their communities,” Gov. Holcomb said. “The purpose of this guidance is not to restrict religious liberty, but to save lives during these extraordinary times. I look forward to the day where we can once again worship side-by-side without the threat of spreading coronavirus.”
Gov. Holcomb’s executive order 20-18 states all public and private gatherings, including religious and spiritual, should follow CDC guidance, which restricts gatherings to ten or less people. Click here to see executive orders: https://www.in.gov/gov/2384.htm
To continue safely serving their communities, faith institutions are directed as follows:
Church buildings and other physical locations for worship should be closed.
Livestream or other virtual services are best.
The minimum number of necessary personnel should be used at all times for any services.
Staff and volunteers who are not speaking should wear masks.
Drive-in services may be conducted only under these conditions:
Attendees must be inside vehicles at all times.
Attendees should not interact physically with clergy, staff or participants in other vehicles.
Vehicles should contain only members of a single household. Do not bring your neighbors or others outside of your household.
Cars must be spaced the equivalent of every other parking spot or approximately 9 feet apart.
No one may exit a vehicle at any time.
Portable bathrooms are not allowed on the premises and no church facilities may be used by attendees.
It is preferred that no communion be distributed.
In instances when communion is distributed, only prepackaged communion may be used and must be prepared and distributed in a manner that meets food safety standards.
The following individuals who are vulnerable and at higher risk for illness should not attend:
Persons who are 65 years and older.
Those who have severe underlying medical conditions, like heart or lung disease or diabetes.
For the 27th year, the Indiana Pacers have teamed with the Indianapolis Public Library to present Call-A-Pacer, a collaboration that allows callers to listen to featured Pacers’ players and
personalities read from fun, basketball-inspired children’s books.
While the library remains closed during the Coronavirus pandemic, fans of all ages can hear excerpts from pre-selected favorites 24-hours a day by calling (317) 275-4444 or (877) 275-9007 or logging onto Pacers.com.
Additionally, fans can download a new Call-A-Pacer phone wallpaper every Wednesday on the @PacersSportsEnt
Instagram account.
The schedule of Pacer readers and stories is listed below, with one featured each week beginning April 6 and running through June 27, 2020. Call-A-Pacer, part of the Pacers Cares education initiative, was created to encourage school-age children to read and visit their neighborhood library.
For more information on Call-A-Pacer or any of the Pacers Cares community programs, visit www.Pacers.com.
Contact is Kelli Towles, 317.440.2122.
April 6 Justin Holiday The Basketball Ball Esme Raji Codell
April 13 T.J. McConnell Dino-Basketball Lisa Wheeler
April 20 Alize Johnson The Real Slam Dunk Charisse K. Richardson
April 27 Goga Bitadze Basketball Break CC Joven
May 4 TJ Leaf Brendan & Belinda & The Slam Dunk Anne Rockwell
May 11 Naz Mitrou-Long Short Takes: Fast-Break Basketball Poetry Charles R. Smith, Jr.
May 18 Edmond Sumner Jimmy’s Boa & The Bungee Jump Slam Dunk Trinka Hakes Noble
May 26 Doug McDermott Crazy About Basketball Loris Lesynski
June 1 Malcolm Brogdan The Basketball Blowout David A. Kelly
June 8 Myles Turner Salt in His Shoes Deloris Jordan
June 15 Domantas Sabonis I Got Next Daria Peoples-Riley
June 22 Victor Oladipo Tall Tales: Six Amazing Basketball Dreams Charles R. Smith, Jr.
In efforts to defeat the Coronavirus (COVID 19) our behavior this week and next is crucial.
The Orange County Health Department, with support from Orange County Commissioners, want to strongly ask all businesses to reevaluate their essential business operations. If you cannot really justify that you are an essential business (retail, manufacturing, and others), you should seriously consider closing.
For essential businesses who remain open, your employees must be able to:
-practice social distancing.
-practice frequent hand washing.
-cloth face coverings need to be worn in any community setting including work
environments
If your business cannot provide these essential practices for your employees, then we urge your business to close.
To protect the health and safety of our residents and your employees we must be
diligent in following guidelines.
Dr. Lopez believes that many people in Orange County are trying to follow the guidelines set forth.
He is encouraging you, as an employer in this county, to take your responsibility toward your employees seriously. Now is not the time to try to find the loopholes in an executive order that will enable your company to carry on as usual.
This is NOT a normal situation.
We must stay strong, support each other, stay optimistic and work together for the benefit of our people.
A nonformal complaint can be made anonymously by anyone and does not require a signature.
Nonformal complaints result in IOSHA contacting the company by phone, mail, e-mail or fax to investigate alleged hazards.
To fill submit a complaint go to: https://www.in.gov/dol/3144.htm
As more and more lives are being impacted by COVID-19 in Indiana, Dr. Lopez, Orange County Health Officer, stated, “The next two to three weeks will be some of the most crucial to contain the virus in our community.”
Orange County Health Department, with the support of Orange County Commissioners, is strongly recommending for essential retail stores and grocery stores to make the following necessary guidelines to prevent crowding in the store and allow for social distancing:
Limit the number of customers and staff allowed in the store at a time. Require staff to count the number of customers entering and exiting the store and to enforce those limits.
Clearly mark 6’ spacing lines and other high-traffic areas and consider ways to encourage spacing if there are lines outside. Consider posting signage or using ropes to direct customers and to limit bottlenecks.
Designate employees to monitor social distancing and assist customers.
Maximize space between customers and employees at checkout.
Designate employee(s) to ensure the cleaning guidelines set by the CDC are followed.
Discontinue self-serve foods and product sampling.
Establish exclusive hours for those in high-risk populations, including seniors, but make sure and follow the customers limited rule during those hours as well.
For larger grocery stores and retailers, encourage customer pickup and/or delivery options.
Allow only one member of family to enter the store at a time and consider not allowing children (under 16) or pets in the facility.
Cloth face coverings need to be worn by all persons including employees.
“We thank those stores that are already implementing all of these measures to keep our community members safe,” Lopez said.
Gov. Eric J. Holcomb signed a new executive order this week with new advice for local business.
Retail businesses providing the necessities of life as described above may remain open to the public under the following conditions and restrictions.
Such businesses should limit the number of customers in their facility at any given time to achieve the CDC’s required social distancing;
Such businesses should limit their hours of operations and consider implementing separate operating hours for the elderly and other vulnerable customers; and
Such businesses shall comply with social distancing and sanitation of application areas and other mitigation measures to protect its employees and the public.
The Governor ordered all other retail businesses could remain open after April 8 only for online or call-in ordering with delivery or curbside service pickup.
These retail businesses shall comply with social distancing and sanitation of application areas and other mitigation measures to protect the public and employees.
In a first, small step toward reopening the country, the Trump administration issued new guidelines Wednesday to make it easier for essential workers who have been exposed to COVID-19 to get back to work if they do not have symptoms of the coronavirus.
Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced at the White House that essential employees, such as health care and food supply workers, who have been within 6 feet of a confirmed or suspected case of the virus can return to work under certain circumstances if they are not experiencing symptoms.
The new guidelines are being issued as the nation mourns more than 14,000 deaths from the virus and grapples with a devastated economy and medical crises from coast to coast. Health experts continue to caution Americans to practice social distancing and to avoid returning to their normal activities. At the same time, though, they are planning for a time when the most serious threat from COVID-19 will be in the country’s rear-view mirror.
President Donald Trump said that while he knows workers are “going stir crazy” at home, he can’t predict when the threat from the virus will wane.
“The numbers are changing and they’re changing rapidly and soon we’ll be over that curve. We’ll be over the top and we’ll be headed in the right direction. I feel strongly about that,” Trump said about the coronavirus, which he called “this evil beast.”
“I can’t tell you in terms of the date,” Trump said, adding cases could go down and then once again “start going up if we’re not careful. ”
At some point, he said at his daily briefing, social distancing guidelines will disappear and people will be able to sit together at sports events. “At some point, we expect to be back, like it was before,” he said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said if the existing guidelines asking people to practice social distancing through the end of April are successful in halting the spread of the virus, more relaxed recommendations could be in order.
Governor Eric Holcomb’s Wednesday daily briefing focused on nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box ordered directors of nursing facilities and correctional facilities to report any COVID-19 cases or suspected cases and deaths to the state within 24 hours. That included residents, inmates, and employees.
Box said 15% or 31 of the state’s 203 COVID-19 deaths have come from nursing and long-term care facilities, which have been a major focus of the state’s efforts to combat the spread of the virus.
Dr. Daniel Rusyniak with the Family and Social Services Administration called those facilities “the perfect storm” for contagion because there are people in a vulnerable population living together in close quarters.
So far, the state has sent Strike Teams to 200 of a reported 735 facilities and tested 600 people. Of those, 191 tested positive and 170 of them were in long-term care facilities.
Box conceded that Indiana has struggled with its COVID-19 testing capacity. Tests are still focused on high-risk groups, she said, adding that the state had received 19 testing machines that could provide results in 15 to 30 minutes and expand capacity.
The state can do about 3,700 tests per day, Box said. The average COVID-19 patient spends 2-4 days in intensive care and 7-10 days total in the hospital.
Holcomb called COVID-19 an “invisible enemy” and reiterated that social distancing is the most effective tool the state has to slow the spread.
“We’ve got to keep our heads down and grind this thing out day after day after day,” Holcomb said. “There is no shortcut.”
He reminded Hoosiers that the anticipated surge in cases was still to come.
“The wave is coming. When you look at the numbers, the numbers don’t lie,” Holcomb said, again going to a basketball analogy. “We’ve got three-and-a-half more quarters to go. We’ve got to dig deep.”
Holcomb also signed an executive order to allow retired and inactive EMS professionals to join the fight against COVID-19.
The executive order permits retired and inactive EMS professionals to provide supplemental health care services in Indiana during this public health emergency without reinstatement or approval by the Indiana EMS Commission if they work under the supervision of a licensed EMS or health care professional.
Under the executive order, retired and inactive EMS professionals are also allowed to provide primary patient care for patients as part of emergency response, transports and facilities with a temporary certification or licensure from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security.
