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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 Friday said the number of positive cases for COVID-19 in the state has risen to 26,655 following the emergence of 602 more cases.
That’s the highest number of new cases in the daily health department update since May 8, when 643 were reported.
The state reported 580 new cases on Thursday, 346 on Wednesday, 500 on Tuesday, 501 on Monday, 394 on Sunday and 586 on Saturday.
The department said Friday that the cumulative death toll in the state rose to 1,550, up from 1,508 the previous day—an increase of 42.
More than 91% of the total deaths involve those who are age 60 or older. Almost 75% of those who have died are older than 70. Men account for 51.6% of the deaths.
The state reported that 165,448 people have been tested so far, up from 160,239 in Thursday’s report—an increase of 5,209.
The ISDH said the test numbers reflect only those tests reported to the department and the numbers should not be characterized as a comprehensive total.
Health officials say Indiana has far more coronavirus cases—possibly thousands more—than those indicated by the number of tests. A study announced Wednesday estimated at least 186,000 Hoosiers have or had COVID-19 through the end of April.
New positive cases, deaths and tests have occurred over a range of dates but were reported to the department in the previous day.
The department reported the state’s first case on March 6 and first death from COVID-19 on March 16.
Marion County on Friday reported 7,995 cumulative cases—up from 7,793 the previous day, an increase of 202 cases.
The county’s cumulative death toll rose to 465, up from 451 in Thursday’s report.
The state said 38,265 people have been tested in the county.
As for surrounding counties, Hamilton had 977 positive cases; Johnson 959; Hendricks 1,012; Boone 252; Hancock 282; Madison 535; Morgan 240; and Shelby 278.
Pike County has three cases, but every other Indiana county has at least seven cases.
The department said 39.4% of the state’s intensive care unit beds were still available. About 17.4% are being used by COVID-19 patients.
The department also said 80.1% of the state’s ventilators were available. About 7% were being used for COVID-19 patients.
The health department is providing case updates daily at noon based on results received through 11:59 p.m. the previous day.
As of Friday morning, more than 1.41 million cases had been reported in the United States, with 85,974 deaths, according to a running tally maintained by health researchers at Johns Hopkins University & Medicine. More than 246,400 people have recovered.
Nearly 4.5 million cases have been reported globally, with 303,825 deaths. More than 1.6 million people have recovered.
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I’ve said this for a long time…we need to start tracking the number of active cases and the severity of the positive cases. A person who tested positive back in March is no longer sick. An a symptomatic person is not sick. Sure, they can pass the virus to others, but an asymptomatic person isn’t at the risk of dying and I think there are ways they can live a somewhat normal life (masks, distancing, etc). I also think we need to track the number of first-time people being tested versus those who are getting tested daily/weekly/monthly. I’m not saying front-line workers shouldn’t be tested. It’s just that their frequent testing skews the numbers.
Asymptomatic people are the most cause for concern. They spread the virus unknowingly, thinking are “just fine.” This is why EVERYONE needs to wear a face covering all the time in public.
Below is a link to the Google Sheet collecting the daily data. Overall, the percentage of people testing positive is down (so that shows we’re testing more than those we think are sick).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JZCtoPctZdU3eXu1OZZiFM-G0IjIbc3FKmhRQY4UyEk/edit?usp=sharing
Asymptomatic people are the most cause for optimism. Because they are spreading a strain that does not cause any harm to half of its hosts. If we presume that the body’s immune system still works against the present virus strain (that isn’t causing harm), that means someone is becoming immune for free. No need for (costly) testing or a (costly) vaccine. And, if we can systematically spreading this to healthy people, we can develop herd immunity. With a little organization, we could do this in 8 weeks. Keep the old, frail, feeble protected, of course. But, allow the young and healthy to develop the herd immunity.
I largely agree with you, though I can see where Chuck W might be confused that you’re talking about a strain. While I’m sure there are multiple strains, I’m no virologist, and the reality is that some people merely have robust enough immune systems to effectively vanquish the strain(s). And herd immunity seems the optimal solution. It lets the healthy go out and be productive, advancing the economy and fending off a collapse that would cause far, far more people to die than COVID-19. And, as you said, keep the elderly and sick protected, which is far easier to do in an economically healthy country and an economically crippled one. In due time, this will become endemic (if it hasn’t already) but it will yield mild impacts because so few people have already been exposed, and the vast majority develop mild or no symptoms.
What is your source for this? This is the first time I have heard asymptomatic carriers are carrying a different strain
This is not an “Uptick”. It is well within the averages, given reporting delays, etc. don’t go Gannett on us. So for the 8000th time, why is there no reporting on new hospitalizations specific to C-19? Is there some sort of HiPPA issue? IBJ, can you respond, please
Chuck, we’ve answered this question more than once. You must not be checking for the answer. And going from 580 to 602 is an uptick.
The raw number of positive tests is meaningless without knowing the total number tested. Was 580 a result of 5,000 tests? Was 602 a result of 15,000 tests?
Chuck W., there are multiple strains of the CoViD-19 virus. Some are more deadly than others. One of the early concerns is that we did not know which strain(s) of the virus would come to America. There are different strains in the USA. Dave S, there were 602 positive results from 5209 tests in today’s report from the State.
For anyone wanting a basic understanding of strains and how they relate to CoViD-19, here’s an article: https://www.webmd.com/lung/coronavirus-strains#1