Governor Eric Holcomb will be adjusting and maybe easing his stay-at-home order Friday, but don’t expect to hear many specifics before then. During his press conference Tuesday, Holcomb said he’ll be working on plans right up until that point.
“I’m not trying to hide the ball,” he said. “I’m not trying to be cute here. We’re going to use between now and Friday at 2:30, to make sure we’ve properly thought through all sectors. And I would share it with you if I had it, but it’s not ready to go yet. We still have more work to do. Just being as honest as I can be.”
The governor said Friday’s update will reflect a “new normal,” and the reopening will probably roll out in multiple stages extending through the summer.
Holcomb said he won’t just look at the number of cases when making decisions but also at health care systems’ capacity to handle them. “This could be with us, folks, for a year,” he said. “It’s how we manage our way through this, and how we keep that curve flat enough so that our health care system can care for those folks who are in need.”
When it comes to determining whether people have recovered from COVID-19, retesting them is not typically part of the process, according to Indiana State Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lindsay Weaver. “We do know that when we test people, two, even three weeks after they’ve tested positive, they could test positive again,” she explained. “We don’t actually know if that means that they could still infect people. So there’s lots of data, information, research out there trying to look into that.”
As for how to avoid spreading the coronavirus, Dr. Weaver recommended against wearing gloves when out in public. “My recommendation and what I’ve been telling other people to do when I go to the grocery store is I wear a mask. I bring hand sanitizer with me, and I just frequently wash my hands,” Weaver said. “The other thing I always remind people is that, when you’re walking around the grocery store, that’s a good time to put your phone in your pocket or your purse and don’t touch it because every time you touch something and go touch your phone again, you’re potentially exposing your phone to some of the things that you may be touching on surfaces.”
She explained that if people touch several different surfaces with the same gloves, they could continue to spread the virus around.
