Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett on Thursday rolled out a new set of business and social-gathering restrictions for Marion County in response to a rising wave of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
– All schools are required to switch to all-virtual instruction no later than Nov. 30.
– Starting Monday, indoor capacity will be reduced to 25% for bars and entertainment venues. Restaurants can stay at 50% indoors and 100% outdoor capacity. Self-service buffets and salad bars and karaoke are banned. Maximum party size at tables is six.
– All non-essential hospitality and entertainment businesses must close at midnight. Weddings, receptions, special holiday events and sporting events will be limited to 25% capacity.
– Events with more than 50 people require an approved safety plan.
– Religious services will be limited to 75% indoor capacity. Cultural venues, music venues, tourism sites are reduced to 25% indoor capacity. Gyms and fitness studios are reduced to 25% indoor capacity.
– Negative COVID-19 tests will be required to visit nursing homes for an indoor visit, within 72 hours of the visit.
“I take no joy in making these changes,” Hogsett said during a video announcement. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Marion County on Wednesday reported 726 new COVID-19 cases. The testing-positivity rate for all tests rose to 15.7% and to 10.3% for unique individuals.
“I urge residents to scale back Thanksgiving plans,” Hogsett said. He recommended people hold video chats on Thanksgiving instead of gathering together or consider eating outside.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
Didn’t know Pothole Joe was out of rehab.
LMAO
LOL. No, John M., he’s obviously still under the influence based on this ridiculous order!
Why is it acceptable to keep restaurants, bars and restaurants open and not schools?
Read this op ed by Dr. Aaron Carroll – here at IU Medical School:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/opinion/coronavirus-schools-tradeoffs.html?searchResultPosition=5
“From a policy perspective, we’ve been just as unwilling to sacrifice. Almost everyone thinks that opening schools is extremely important …But too few people have been willing to discuss what we might be willing to shut down to make that happen. If we want to make it safer to send kids back to school, we might need to consider reducing the number of people who can drink in bars or eat in restaurants, for example.”
Because we’re too cheap or stupid to offer the bars/restaurants financial support so they can get through until the spring. We think “we can have it all” and we can’t.
Bars and Restaurants who applied did receive financial support.
Checkout some of the big restaurant owners in town…7 figure PPP loans…
They need more… restaurants barely make it in the best of times. When a fair chunk of the population isn’t willing to risk illness to patronize them, they don’t have a chance…
Clueless Joe at it again…What happened to open it all up including schools and protecting those most vulnerable….World is not sterile now and never was nor will it ever be ! Picking winners and losers again ! Go back to your basement Joe !
How does this affect whatever statewide mandates the Governor comes out with? I was hoping for a more uniform set of mandates for Marion and surrounding counties for people like me that work and play in two counties. I know this mayor wanted to same thing. It sounds like a “metro area” approach didn’t happen.
Jeff A., we don’t want a “metro” approach! Hogsett can ruin Indianapolis all on his own…the rest of us are doing just fine and want to keep it that way. Hogsett only wants this approach so he can drag everyone else down with him as cover for what he has done to destroy Indy.
No MG, you aren’t all doing just fine. Look at the positivity rates. If you lose a friend or family member to Covid-19, you’ll no longer be so blind to this pandemic. I don’t know why certain people can’t see beyond what personally affects them.
Incoming! Watch out Wesley is back from the Pacific Coast with his panic of the plandemic! 99.97% of people will be ok. But these policies end destroying the 99.97% just trying to live. Want to spew the election infection comments on west coast papers, go for it Wesley!
Thank god a metro area approach didn’t happen. Let’s keep it that way. Joe can ruin downtown if he wants.
Where do people keep getting this 99.97% survival rate number? If 240K have already died out of a U.S. population of ~360M, that would mean that only 99.93% have yet die to from it. But if only ~10% have been infected, that would bring the survivability rate down to 99.33%. This would equal 1 out of every 150 Americans potentially dying if everyone became infected. That’s a huge difference from the 1 out of every 3,333 that would be the case if the survival rate was 99.97%, which it obviously isn’t, since 1 out of every 1,500 Americans have already died.
Shut everything non-essential down until it sinks in to the morons that this is a pandemic and they need to do whatever it takes for everyone to be as safe as possible until the treatments and vaccines are readily available.
That approach has not worked in Europe, so why would we expect it to work here?
Jay Whatever-It-Takes, what exactly should we be doing? Be specific. Don’t say masks. The 3 guys you saw this week not wearing masks are not responsible for the 600% increase in Indiana, US, and Europe.
Signed- Moron
Hey Trumpsters, wear your masks!
All public places in Indiana require them so what are you talking about??
M G. – Randy is referring to the well documented correlation between supporters of President Trump and people who refuse to wear masks. Even the CDC had to come out and explicitly say that wearing masks also protects the individual wearing it – not just those around them You see, Trump supporters don’t care about anyone besides themselves so when we learned that wearing a mask protects others they did nothing. Because they don’t care. And here we are 8+ months into a global pandemic and some people still can’t figure it out. Wear a mask in the presence of others. Socially distance when in public. Avoid close crowds indoors. Whether that’s at work, school, stores, church – close crowds indoors are what we need to avoid.
Randy, I don’t like him either, but Trump has an amazing reach of influence. All those Trumpsters running around Europe, taking down that continent by not wearing masks. Crazy!
Or at least scream about social justice while not wearing a mask. Everybody knows you cannot catch Covid while rioting or looting!
+1 Chuck and Thomas
But don’t be confused and read fast, I didn’t say Chuck Todd, he’s a moron!
In months of mask mandate I’ve seen exactly ONE person not wearing a mask indoors where required. Not sure where you’re hanging out, but maybe you should consider your friends if it’s that important to you
My child’s elementary school has had 3, yes a total of 3 cases, since they started the school year. They have been in school every weekday, Mon-Fri, and it has not been a problem. Leadership at the school, and adherence to policy by the families has done the job. Now they are forced to go all virtual. I hate to Monday morning quarterback, but at some point common sense and a more nuanced approach needs to be adopted.
I’m in roughly the same boat. The problem hasn’t been cases spreading during the school day or (seemingly) school activities, it’s been the behavior outside the schools. That’s led to cases/quarantines that have around 15% of the pupils at one of my children’s school absent.
IMO – we didn’t shut down long enough (needed another month) in the summer, and we didn’t come up with priorities. As in, it’s our priority in society for kids to go to school, so we will make sacrifices elsewhere to enable that. Now we’re in a world of hurt and it’s only going to get worse until the spring comes… exactly what the scientists told us would happen if we didn’t listen to them.
Why do we allow him to be Mayor has anyone learned their lesson yet!
Our highways and streets look like a getto with trash and everything else laying up and down them for months.
Now he’s turning our city into little Chicago!
Craig back at it complaining about the streets! Still haven’t gotten an answer form you about why that’s your continuous harping point.
You got the two positivity rates backwards.
Schools should have been shut down back when we crossed 11% unique individual positivity rate.
All told, about time for these restrictions to be put back on. Lives will be saved.
And Randy S go live in Venezuela!
With your family.
If they are making a statement, they need to IMMEDIATELY follow up with it in writing on the City’s website…It’s not here yet…https://www.indy.gov/activity/covid-19-press-releases
Have Pothole and Virginia figured out where Lucas Oil stadium is located yet?
as usual, the contradictions in PotHole Joe’s plans make no sense. Closing schools, yet keeping churches at 75% is mindless, yet very consistent with the cognitive dissonance policies that enabled the destruction of downtown. Is his term over yet??
Governor Holcomb needs to stand up, be a man, and put a lid on Hogsett’s schoolroom ban. It’s the Indiana Department of Education, not the Indianapolis Department of Education. Let each individual school make the decision that works according to the situation that they are experiencing. Boss Hog, butt out!!
I just hear all of this vitriol and wonder “why”? Why do we have to be this way to one another? The constant belittling of the Mayor is non-productive. The reality of this situation rests in pure numbers and science and I am not talking about survivability rates. If that were the case, we could all throw our masks away. But is that what YOUR America is about. Do our servicemen risk their lives for THEIR freedom? Do First Responders risk their lives to protect THEMSELVES? i just continually hear so much about me, me, me. We are in this together. Solutions, in the absence of a vaccine, are just bandaids, but if my hand is bleeding badly, I wear a bandaid. So these efforts, whether you agree with them or not, are intended to take some steps to control the spread and protect our fellow citizens. Hospitals in our state are already approaching capacities in some counties. Non-emergency, yet important, surgeries are being postponed because hospital beds are filling up with Covid-19 positive cases. Nurses, doctors, support staff are growing weary and tired. They have been going non-stop. So PLEASE, can we begin to think about others? Our economy can manage through this. I believe it can. I also believe that government (local and national) needs to step in to help those parts of our economy that suffer the most. Folks can work from home, restaurants ARE a lousy place to be, sadly…so let’s get behind a national relief package that gives them support financially. The rest of us?…….order carry out every damn night. On the political front, let’s look forward with some degree of hope and positivity that among Biden’s first priorities is to GET KIDS BACK IN SCHOOL SAFELY. To fund that effort and make it happen. WE can do this. WE can move past this. WE can if YOU WILL. PLEASE stop attacking and take a positive approach to the sincere efforts made by our Republican Governor and the Democratic Mayor of Indianapolis. I wear a mask because I care about those I love and those with whom I may pass in the drug or grocery store, my trip to Lowes or Home Depot, or getting my tank filled up. I HATE IT!!! I want it gone….but I will wear it because I have been asked to and I won’t be a baby about it. Thanks…you’re all good people. Let’s do this just as our brave men and women who protect our country, respond to our emergencies and serve with no other purpose than to DO FOR OTHERS. True Patriotism is in service to not one’s interests, but to the interests of their neighbors, knowing that in that service, they give service to themselves. That is America.
Right on John P.! A voice of reason.
Not a hater; just pointing out the inconsistency; bar/restaurants open but schools virtual?
The martians must be laughing their A@@ off at us humans.
Thank you Joe Hogsett for listening to scientists and medical professionals and for having the courage to take precautionary steps.
I was SO pleased when you’d had enough of people not wearing masks in public and imposed fines for those refusing to protect themselves and others. The positive effects were immediate. The very next day, ALL grocery store customers were wearing masks rather than 6 out of 10 of the previous week. Finally, I felt comfortable going into the store to pick out my own produce again.
So thank you for having everyone’s health and safety at heart and for your political courage and determination to put precautions into action. You are SAVING LIVES, and I appreciate and thank you for that.
Nancy if everyone is wearing a mask now why are our numbers going up?
People don’t wear masks in small social gatherings…