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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana Gov. Eric Holcomb is extending his executive order outlining pandemic-related capacity restrictions based on a county-by-county system for another month.
The current executive order outlines restrictions based on the rate of infection in each county. Under the county-by-county system, each county is assigned a color each week that is based on its seven-day positivity rate and number of infected individuals per 100,000. Red indicates the highest level of spread.
As of Wednesday, only five counties were in red, which is down from 34 counties last week.
“This signals that we’re starting to move in the right direction,” Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box said.
During his weekly press briefing Wednesday, Holcomb announced that the county-by-county restrictions would continue through Feb. 28, but instead of limiting the specific number of people that could be at gatherings, the restriction will be based on a percentage of capacity at a facility.
Under the existing order, social gatherings are limited to 25 people in red counties, 50 people in orange counties, 100 people in yellow counties and 250 people in blue counties.
But the new order will limit capacity to 25% in red or orange counties and 50% in yellow counties. Capacity is allowed to be at 100% in blue counties, but social distancing is still required to be practiced.
Holcomb said he’s glad to see the state’s positivity rate and hospitalizations are trending the right direction, but “we never want to get ahead of ourselves.”
The current executive order was set to expire after Sunday.
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