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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indiana State Department of Health on Thursday morning said the number of presumptive positive cases for COVID-19 in the state has risen to 645 after the emergence of 168 more cases.
The department reported that 4,651 people have been tested so far, up from 3,365 people in the previous day’s report. The ISDH said the test number reflects only those tests reported to the department and the numbers should not be characterized as a comprehensive total.
The death toll in the state has risen to 17, up from 14 the previous day.
Marion County reported 293 cases—up 67 cases from the previous day—with six deaths.
Other area counties with cases are Hamilton (40), Johnson (36), Hendricks (21), Boone (7), Hancock (9), Madison (4), Morgan (7) and Shelby (2).
The health department is providing case updates daily at 10 a.m. based on results received through midnight.
Health officials say Indiana has far more coronavirus cases—possibly thousands more—than those indicated by the number of tests.
Cases have been confirmed in at least 60 Indiana counties so far.
As of Thursday morning, 69,197 cases had been reported in the United States, with 1,046 deaths, according to a running tally maintained by health researchers at Johns Hopkins University & Medicine. More than a third of deaths occurred in New York and Washington state.
More than 487,640 cases have been reported globally, with 22,030 deaths. More than 117,700 people have recovered.
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Reporting “new cases” is really not very important. There are more cases out there than you know about because the infection is asymptomatic or mild in the VAST majority of cases. And cases will rise with the availability of test kits. Breathless reporting of case increases just foments stupid panic. We expect tens of thousands of new cases; the number will get astronomical. Stop acting like it’s a big deal.
AND — what matters is the death rate and more important the ICU usage.
Why is it that no one in the media can get the number of ICU units avail in central indiana and Indiana at large?
AND, how many of those are currently being used — and of that amount how many are being used by COVID-19 victims.
AND, most importantly, what is the age of those patients and what underlying conditions did they have.
Political leaders want everyone to believe that this is Ebola. It isn’t. Nothing reported in the last 2 weeks contradicts the view that there is a linear relationship between symptoms and age. AND that the people at genuine risk of dying are all in a high risk category.
The IBJ could do a service by getting answers to these questions and helping to debunk the hysteria being fomented.
Good questions:
number of ICU units avail in central indiana and Indiana at large?
AND, how many of those are currently being used — and of that amount how many are being used by COVID-19 victims.
You know what? It is a big deal when people who do not consider themselves high risk are cavalier about the serious consequences and pass on the attitude that that it’s only high risk people who should be concerned. Because that will lead to people at “low risk” not cooperating with measures that reduce incidence and therefore are protective of people at risk. If you think people are less valuable because they have “underlying conditions”, think again. You don’t know the health status (nor should you) of all the people you interact or of the health care workers who are out there caring for patients. Society gets through a tough time when they pull together not when they pull part.