Indiana COVID-19 Hospitalizations At New Record High

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana’s hospitals were treating the largest number of COVID-19 patients on Sunday since the state began releasing public reports on coronavirus hospitalizations last spring, state health officials said.

Indiana had 2,768 coronavirus hospitalizations as of Sunday, a number that surpasses the previous peak of 2,634 COVID-19 hospitalizations reported Friday, the Indiana State Department of Health said in its daily statistics update.

The state’s coronavirus hospitalizations as of Sunday marked a 103 percent jump in Indiana’s COVID-19 patients during the past month, the data show.

The health department also added 26 more coronavirus-related deaths to Indiana’s pandemic toll, raising it to 4,936, including confirmed and presumed coronavirus infections.

The state agency also reported another 5,218 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the sixth straight day of recording more than 5,000 new infections. Indiana’s average daily number of newly confirmed COVD-19 cases reached 6,047 as of Sunday, up 238 percent from a month ago.

More than 3,313 new cases of COVID-19 in schools were reported, bringing the statewide total to more than 8,217 cases among students, teachers and staff since the start of the school year.

Dozens of Indiana school districts are changing in-person learning schedules or sending students home altogether. Many schools are having trouble staying open due to the growing number of teachers and students who are sick or in quarantine, Indiana health commissioner Dr. Kristina Box said last week.

While Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb has insisted that mask-wearing and social distancing “are proven to work” so schools can remain open for in-person instruction, Box expressed more caution, advising local officials to reconsider schools’ operations plans as virus spread spikes.