By LaMonte Richardson Jr
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS— Daily Hoosier COVID-19 cases dipped to fewer than 5,500 for the first time in December, making Tuesday the lowest daily number of positive cases reported in Indiana since Nov. 28.

But as the number of cases appears to decline slightly, deaths and hospitalizations continue to mount from the highly contagious novel coronavirus. The Indiana Department of Health announced Tuesday that 5,457 additional Hoosiers were diagnosed with COVID-19, bringing the number of Indiana residents now known to have had COVID-19 to 392,663.

In addition, another 124 Hoosiers are confirmed to have died from COVID-19, for a total of 6,109 people known to have succumbed to the disease. Another 301 probable deaths have been reported based on diagnoses in patients for whom no positive test is on record. Deaths are reported based on when data are received by the state and occurred over multiple days.

Out of all tests administered, 14% are positive, and out of all the unique tests, 27.6% are positive or more than one in four.

To date, 2,338,308 unique individuals have been tested in Indiana, up from 2,323,969 on Monday. A total of 4,656,827 tests, including repeat tests for unique individuals, have been reported to the health department since Feb. 26.

Data on the health department dashboard show that about one in three positive cases are in the children and adult through age 29 group. But even though young people are testing positive at higher rates than the rest of the population, three in four deaths occur in people over age 70.

There are 3,250 people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Monday. The health also reported that 43.8% of Indiana’s ICU beds are currently being occupied by COVID-19 patients, with 20.9% of beds being available. Of all the ventilators available in the state, 14.2% are being used by COVID-19 patients.

FOOTNOTE: LaMonte Richardson Jr. is a reporter with TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.