Indiana’s current COVID-19 restrictions will remain in place for another 30 days. During his weekly press conference Wednesday, Governor Eric Holcomb said he plans to extend both his executive order and the public health emergency declaration. “We have made remarkable progress in relatively a short period of time,” Holcomb said. “This is not a ‘mission accomplished’ moment.”
Gatherings in counties coded red or orange on the Indiana Department of Health’s metrics map are limited to 25 percent of the facility’s capacity. That percentage increases to 50 in yellow-coded counties and 100 in counties coded blue. The state still recommends limiting the number of people to 25 at gatherings in red counties, 50 in orange counties, 100 in yellow counties, and 250 in blue counties. Larger gatherings should submit a safety plan to the local health department. Indiana also remains under a face mask order.
State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box noted that the positivity rate and hospitalization numbers are down, and the metrics map is looking better and better. But the threat of new coronavirus variants remains a grave concern. “This is not the time to throw caution to the wind if we want to cross the finish line,” Box said. “The virus continues to mutate, which creates more unknowns. Indiana now has 16 cases that are of the U.K. variant strain. While the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have good efficacy against this variant, it is not as effective against some of the others that are emerging around the world.”
Dr. Box said the cold weather, the end of the holiday season, and people following the rules have all probably played a role in reducing cases, along with going through a scare with the surge in hospitalizations. But she also believes that vaccinations have made a significant dent in hospitalizations and deaths.
