The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) today announced that 645 additional Hoosiers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 through testing at ISDH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and private laboratories. That brings to 19,933 the total number of Indiana residents known to have the novel coronavirus following corrections to the previous day’s total.
While the number of cases has increased, intensive care unit and ventilator capacity remain steady. As of Sunday, 43.7 percent of ICU beds and 80.4 percent of ventilators were available at hospitals throughout the state.
A total of 1,132 Hoosiers have been confirmed to have died of COVID-19, an increase of 17 over the previous day. Another 114 probable deaths have been reported. Probable deaths are those for which a physician listed COVID-19 as a contributing cause based on X-rays, scans and other clinical symptoms but for which no positive test is on record. Deaths are reported based on when data are received by ISDH and occurred over multiple days.                              Â
To date, 108,859 tests have been reported to ISDH, up from 104,141 on Saturday.
Marion County had the most new cases, at 193. Other counties with more than 10 new cases were Allen (19), Carroll (16), Cass (70), Dearborn (16), Elkhart (16), Hamilton (14), Hendricks (19), Johnson (38), LaPorte (22), Lake (43), St. Joseph (13), Tippecanoe (36) and White (25). The Lake County totals include results from East Chicago and Gary, which have their own health departments.
ISDH will offer drive-thru testing clinics this week across the state. The testing is open to symptomatic healthcare workers, first responders or essential workers, individuals who have symptoms and are in a high-risk category due to age, weight or underlying health conditions, and those who live in the same residence as one of the priority categories. Participants should bring a driver’s license or other state-issued identification card. Tests will be conducted as long as supplies last and will be limited to one individual per vehicle.
Testing sites are:
East Chicago
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. CDT May 4-5
East Chicago Central High School
1100 W. Columbus DriveÂ
Lafayette
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EDT, May 6-9
Lafayette Jeff High School
1801 S. 18th StreetÂ
New Castle
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EDT, May 6-9
First Baptist Church
709 S. Memorial Drive
Plymouth
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EDT, May 6-9
Plymouth High School
#1 Big Red Drive
Seymour
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EDT, May 6-9
Seymour High School
1350 W. Second St.Â
Gibson County: Yesterday evening at approximately 6:15 p.m., Trooper Vennekotter responded to a single-vehicle crash on Taft Town Road near Princeton. Preliminary investigation revealed Cale Winkler, 31, of Princeton, was driving his 2020 Polaris side-by-side utility vehicle west on Taft Town Road southeast of Conservation Drive when he drove off the roadway and overturned.
Winkler displayed signs of impairment and failed field sobriety tests. Further investigation conducted at Gibson General Hospital in Princeton revealed he had a BAC of .43%. Winkler was arrested and taken to the Gibson County Jail where he is currently being held on bond.
Arrested and Charge:
Arresting Officer: Trooper Alex Vennekotter, Indiana State Police
Assisting Officer: Trooper Jonathan Lukeman, Indiana State Police
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said he will ease social distancing restrictions in all but three counties starting Monday.
In a new executive order released Friday that goes into effect Monday and lasts through May 23, retailers — including malls — will be allowed to open at 50% capacity; manufacturers not currently operating will be permitted to do so; offices can have employees return but are encouraged to continue remote work when possible; public libraries can open, the essential travel restrictions will be lifted.
“We are ready to move ahead in a measured way,†Holcomb said Friday in a statewide address.
Common areas in malls will be restricted to 25% capacity to avoid large gatherings of people.
Social gatherings of up to 25 people will also be allowed — up from the previous 10-person limitation.
Holcomb’s current stay-at-home order, which allowed elective medical procedures to resume but maintained all of the other restrictions, is set to expire at midnight. The directives from that order will remain in effect until the new guidelines are in place on Monday.
All of the new guidelines are part of “Stage 2†of Holcomb’s five-part plan to completely reopen the state by July 4.
But Holcomb’s guidance allows local municipalities to have stricter policies in place, so the new measures will not apply to Marion County, which is under a stay-home-order issued by Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett until May 15.
The executive order says Marion and Lake counties will not move to Stage 2 until May 11. Cass County, where an outbreak at the Tyson plant has caused a spike in COVID-19 cases, will not be in Stage 2 until May 18.
Stage 2 also encourages, but does not require, all Hoosiers to wear face masks in public and urges those who are 65 and older or have underlying health conditions to remain at home whenever possible.
Employees in some industries, such as personal care services and restaurants, will be required to wear masks, though.
The one change that will apply statewide affects churches and religious places of worship, which are allowed to resume in-person services on May 8. The 25-person social gathering restriction will not apply to those places, but the administration is suggesting social distancing and health safety practices, like hand washing and hand sanitizer, be practiced.
After a county has been in Stage 2 for one week, starting May 11 for most of the state, personal services businesses such as hair salons and barbershops can open by appointment only and restaurants and bars serving food can open at 50% capacity.
Bars and nightclubs, however, are expected to remain closed until June 14, when Stage 4 begins.
Visits to nursing homes will continue to be prohibited during this stage.
Gyms and fitness centers, casinos, sports venues, museums, zoos, movie theaters, parks, and community swimming pools will also remain closed.
The administration plans to keep its Enforcement Response Team in place to investigate complaints of businesses not complying. As of Thursday, state officials had investigated 1,264 complaints and issued 115 verbal warnings.
Holcomb’s administration considered four main criteria before drafting the executive order — the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients statewide (which has been trending downward); the number of intensive care unit hospital beds and ventilators available; the state’s ability to test individuals with symptoms and essential workers; and having a contract tracing plan in place.
Earlier this week, the state announced a partnership with OptumServe to open 50 new testing sites by mid-May, and the state is working with Virginia-based Maximus Inc. to open a 500-person call center to conduct contract tracing.
Assuming the state continues to have enough ICU beds and ventilators available and testing and contract tracing goes well, Stage 3 would begin May 24 and could apply statewide.
In that phase, gyms and fitness centers and playgrounds could open, movie theaters could operate at 50% capacity, retail stores and malls could increase to 75% capacity and social gatherings of up to 100 people would be allowed.
Stage 4 would begin June 14 and could include allowing malls and retailers to have full capacity, increasing restaurant capacity to 75%, letting bars and nightclubs open with 50% capacity, opening zoos and museums at 50% capacity, and allowing large venues to open.
At that point, social gatherings could increase to a maximum of 250 people.
Stage 5 would begin July 4 and would essentially lift all remaining restrictions, which would mean sporting events, conventions, festivals, and fairs could all occur.
It’s uncertain when riverboat casinos and horse-track racing casinos could open. The administration is working with the Indiana Gaming Commission and Indiana Horse Racing Commission to determine those dates.
Holcomb will extend the public health emergency order that is set to expire May 4.
The state also was expected to reveal plans on Friday to open a marketplace to help facilitate personal protective equipment purchases for small businesses and not-for-profits with fewer than 150 employees.
Indianapolis Public Schools says it is in a strong financial position in the short term, despite the upheaval caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But the district could eventually be hard hit by the deepening recession.
The state’s largest district is more financially stable than many school systems across the country for several reasons: The state has not cut this year’s education funding, voters recently approved a referendum to boost local dollars, the district has access to bond funding, and the Indianapolis economy is strong, said Weston Young, the district’s chief financial officer.
“IPS is positioned well, in my opinion, for the short term to navigate the recent historic and severe COVID-19 economic impacts,†Young said during a media briefing ahead of an IPS board meeting Thursday. The district will also receive about $21 million in federal coronavirus aid, which can be used to cover a wide range of costs.
Over the long term, however, the financial implications for the district are far less certain. Unemployment in Indiana has surged, while sales and income tax revenue have fallen in recent weeks.
Although it’s unclear how bad the recession will be or precisely how it will impact the school system, the district may need to begin making decisions to save money to build a cushion for the future, said Jason O’Neill, a consultant with Policy Analytics who is advising the district.
“The impact of a recession on school finance is not immediate, at least the majority of the impact is not immediate,†O’Neill told the IPS board, “but preparations should be made in the short term.â€
Noting that state revenue is “going to diminish significantly,†IPS Board President Michael O’Connor said at Thursday’s meeting that the district must “be prepared to make some very conservative, very difficult decisions about preparing for those cuts.
If tax revenue continues to decline, the state may cut budgets for schools next year or the years after, Young told the board. “A state can’t pass dollars to schools that it doesn’t have.â€
Some Indiana districts have raised concerns that they could also lose state funding, which is awarded on a per-student basis if parents decide to keep their children home in the fall due to health concerns.
As the pandemic unleashes turmoil across the country, many school systems are facing severe financial challenges. The Los Angeles Unified School District estimates that it has shouldered $200 million in emergency coronavirus costs. As New York City grapples with severe drops in revenue, schools could see $827 million in budget cuts. And in Denver, district officials said the pandemic would cost its schools about $10.5 million this year — a figure that includes the unplanned cost of purchasing about 9,000 laptops for students.
In the early weeks of the crisis, IPS has not taken a severe financial hit. In fact, it spent less than anticipated because school closures reduced costs in some areas, such as transportation, extracurricular activities, and facilities, Young said.
The district, however, is in the midst of making a huge investment in technology. Amid fears that schools could be closed in the fall or the need for some form of social distancing could continue, IPS is spending about $12 million so that every student has a device. That will pay for 14,000 Chromebooks, 7,000 iPads, and 9,000 mobile hotspot devices for students without broadband at home. The purchases will be funded with several sources, including reserves and philanthropic giving.
Andy Berke, the mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was scheduled to visit New York City in mid-March to speak about the immense economic growth of his small Southern city. The flood of the coronavirus into the United States, however, caused Berke to cancel the trip and — with an ongoing dearth of testing — pump the brakes on sharing financial prospects that have since dimmed.
Remaining in his city of 180,000, instead, Berke became one of the earliest leaders in the South to enact measures to prevent the spread of the virus, quickly closing gyms, bars, restaurants, and other nonessential businesses. By March 16, Chattanooga was effectively shut down. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, ordered the same measures a week later statewide, and on April 2, he ordered residents to stay home.
Cases in Chattanooga have remained low, which Berke, a Democrat, sees as evidence that social distancing is working, but he said it’s a challenge to responsibly reopen the economy because testing capacity is still low. Testing for the virus would allow federal, state, and local leaders to track the spread of the virus and intervene before it overwhelmed localities.
“There was a long period of time where we had 40 tests for our community. On top of having very few tests, we couldn’t get them processed,” Berke told NBC News, explaining that it was all Hamilton County, where the city lies, was able to acquire while also facing challenges in developing relationships with labs.
Testing capacity has since increased, but not by as much as is needed. Nevertheless, Lee announced Monday that the “vast majority” of businesses in the state were allowed to reopen — regardless of whether city officials like Berke or individual business owners felt it was safe to do so. The mayor said he can’t promise it’s safe if he doesn’t know how many cases there are in his community, and he can’t do that without help from the federal government to expand the city’s testing capacity.
The development puts Chattanooga at the center of growing partisan tension between Democratic city leaders in the South who want to pursue a slower approach until testing has increased and Republican governors who want the economy reopened as quickly as possible.
As the country as a whole lag behind on the amount of testing public health experts say is required for safe reopening, city and state leaders have asked for federal government support with testing as well as economic relief — only to get a muted and even contrary response from President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
“Why should the people and taxpayers of America be bailing out poorly run states (like Illinois, as an example) and cities, in all cases Democrat-run and managed, when most of the other states are not looking for bailout help?” Trump tweeted Monday morning.
The issues around reopening safely aren’t confined to Tennessee. Chattanooga, located on the southeastern border, is part of a tri-state area with Alabama and Georgia, and people from both states commute to the city for work. Decisions made by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican who is also moving forward with reopening his state and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey will also have significant impacts on the city and the region.
Jennifer Gregory, the treasurer of the Chattanooga Beverage Alliance, a union representing service workers in the area, thinks her members are being forced to return to the front lines without much choice.
“Tennessee doesn’t have the adequate or accurate data to be opening,” said Gregory, who praised Berke’s leadership on the virus. The state has 10,735 reported cases, including 199 deaths, linked to the illness. Hamilton County, the fourth-most populous county in the state, accounts for just 1.4 percent of that.
Gregory knows that many in the city are suffering because of the lockdown, including members of the alliance, but she added, “How do we talk about economies when people are dying?”
“And what does that say to someone who works in a restaurant or Walmart or Whole Foods?” Gregory asked. “That our most vulnerable populations, people that have to be there, are treated with that level of disregard, it’s disturbing.”
Hamilton County, which controls the local health department, is now testing asymptomatic residents, but Berke is doubtful it will be enough. Nearby Knox County essentially ran out of swabs almost immediately after starting testing, he said, and experts say the country needs universal testing.
“We’re trying to figure out what the actual turnaround time and capacity is,” Berke said of the newest testing measures, calling them a “leap forward” but one that barely goes far enough. Chattanooga, he said, can’t safely reopen under the governor’s plan.
“It fails to account for the growing number of positive cases across the state, and especially in southeast Tennessee,” the mayor said about Lee’s decision. “It goes against the warnings of public health experts and doctors. It lacks the groundwork we need to ensure that restaurant owners and managers understand their responsibilities and have the supplies they need to keep people safe.”
Before the pandemic, Chattanooga had plans to bring new companies to the city, had recorded multiple years of growth, and was in the process of revitalizing its downtown. Without access to testing, that all feels in jeopardy. And the lack of testing means residents aren’t ready to go back to work, even if their governor says they are.
In November, Volkswagen announced that it would expand its plant in Chattanooga and add 1,000 jobs to build an electric-powered SUV. But five months later, on April 9, the Volkswagen plant announced that it had furloughed 2,500 employees.
Eager to get back up and running, Volkswagen said it would stagger the return of its employees beginning May 3, implementing nearly 100 health measures, including new personal protective equipment and temperature checks for its workers. But the company postponed its plans to reopen Wednesday, citing “the readiness of the supplier base, as well as market demand and the status of the COVID-19 outbreak.”
Even as states reopen, city leaders, employers, and workers continue to face a difficult question shared by Americans across the country: Can this once-booming economy open again without the coronavirus wreaking further havoc?
“I don’t see what has changed in the past four weeks where it’s now safer for anyone to go back,” said Steve Cochran, a worker at the plant. “Best-case scenario we could test everyone. That’s not feasible.”
Before coronavirus shutdowns, “people came to work sick as they could be, because they didn’t want to use their vacation,” said Cochran, who said he and other employees didn’t have sick leave and hadn’t been consulted on how to reopen the plant.
“I could go to work and get the virus a lot easier than at the store. There are 3,000 people,” he said.
Small manufacturers are affected, as well.
Aaron Hoffman’s Chattanooga-based hot sauce company was hoping to grow by 200 percent by the year’s end when the pandemic hit. But, Hoffman, the co-founder, has laid off six of his 10 employees, with just one person fulfilling orders drawn from three months of inventory he has left in stock.
“I’m just waiting on the testing,” Hoffman said of bringing people back. “I’m not a medical expert. I’m just hanging on to what Dr. Fauci says.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned states wanting to reopen their economies not to “leap over things” that would potentially allow the coronavirus to rebound.
Chattanooga’s relatively diverse economy should insulate it somewhat, as major employers like insurance and distribution centers remain operational, said Dr. William Fox, the director of the University of Tennessee’s Center for Business and Economic Research.
But without sales tax, a major source of revenue in a state without earned income tax, the budget of a city like Chattanooga will take a real hit.
“Our city is struggling financially. There is just no other way around it,” Berke said — a problem exacerbated by Easter tornadoes that caused an estimated $300 million in damage and displaced more than 400 residents.
In a Hamilton County economic impact survey published in late April, 41 percent of the 243 businesses that responded said they had had to lay off or furlough employees, and more than 50 percent expect to see the impacts last more than seven months. Only 5 percent reported experiencing no impact.
For Nick Wilkinson, the executive director of the Tivoli Theatre Foundation, the stoppage has been devastating — especially as the future remains unclear.
Wilkinson runs the iconic Tivoli Theatre in downtown Chattanooga and two other spaces that put on about 150 shows a year. When the foundation took over the theaters from the city in 2015, it grew the number of shows by around 900 percent, and Wilkinson just acquired a new building while undertaking a $40 million renovation.
Now, that’s all on pause, and Wilkinson — like many other business owners — isn’t keen to pack his theaters for concerts and plays any time soon without proof that it will be safe for attendees. He also isn’t sure how he can go out and try to raise needed money for his nonprofit theaters when there is so much immediate need around him.
The city, he said, can’t recover alone.
“It doesn’t matter how good Chattanooga has been,” Wilkinson said. “At the end of the day, if the cavalry ain’t coming from D.C., there is nothing any local small community can do to address the needs they have. It’s just impossible.”
Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) is calling on the Trump administration to include fruit and vegetable processing plants in an executive order meant to keep meat processing facilities open during the coronavirus pandemic.
Braun requested the administration include canneries and frozen food suppliers in the order President Trump signed Tuesday evening to secure the U.S. supply of non-perishable foods.
“I urge you to use this authority to ensure that our nation’s supply chain of canned and frozen fruit and vegetables remains secure,†Braun wrote to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday.
He noted that produce has a short harvest and processing window and is particularly vulnerable.
“For example, our nation’s annual supply of canned and frozen corn, green beans, tomatoes, peaches and peas are harvested and packed within the span of two to three months,†he wrote.
“Our job is to get nominations across the finish line, and I’ve put so much time and effort into health care reform and climate,†said Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.). “I almost feel like that wanes every day you’re not there.â€
Senator Braun joined Fox59’s INFocus Coronavirus Town Hall on Wednesday night to answer viewer questions about the federal coronavirus response and the path to getting Hoosiers back to work and our economy back to growth.
“For government leaders, for individuals, for businesses, we are going to have a new normal,†U.S. Sen. Mike Braun of Jasper said. “This is a very challenging and tricky virus that we’re up against. We have to wait on therapies to be perfected; we’re gonna need to wait on a vaccine.â€
The country has been waiting and adhering, for the most part, to strict health guidelines since March. Soon, it will be time to start getting the economy going again, Braun said.
“The quicker we can get back to reopening businesses in a smart way and getting people back to work,†he said, “that’s what’s going to bring us out of this, but also realizing that we need to stay disciplined.â€
Braun explained that President Donald Trump’s plan for reopening the economy is more so a guideline for states to use if needed.
Friday morning at approximately 10:10 a.m., Indiana State Police and Pike County Sheriff’s Office responded to a crash on SR 64 west of Meridian Road that claimed the life of a Winslow man.
Preliminary investigation revealed Anthony Woolsey, 33, of Winslow, was driving his 1996 Ford pickup truck westbound on SR 64 approximately ½ mile west of Meridian Road when for unknown reasons drove left of center and into the path of a 2018 Freightliner truck that was traveling east.
Woolsey was pronounced dead at the scene by the Pike County Coroner’s Office and had to be extricated from his vehicle by the Patoka Township Volunteer Fire Department.
The driver of the Freightliner truck, James Coffey, 47, and his passenger, Jason Gordon, 46, both from Louisville, KY, were taken to Jasper Memorial Hospital where they were treated for non-life threatening injuries. SR 64 was closed for approximately four hours while the crash was investigated.
This is an on-going investigation and toxicology results are pending.
Investigating Officer: Senior Trooper John Davis
Assisting Officers: Sergeant Kylen Compton, Trooper CJ Boeckman and Trooper Jonathan Lukeman
Assisting Agencies: Pike County Sheriff’s Office, Gibson County Sheriff’s Office, Oakland City Police, Patoka Twp. Volunteer Fire Department and Pike County Coroner’s Office
