The Tribune
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb didn’t mince words during his weekly COVID- 19 press conference.
“The state of Indiana is on fire,” Holcomb said this past Wednesday.
The governor was right in his pandemic assessment, but his imagery could become even more verbose in the coming weeks if cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to climb as predicted.
The state’s most recent coronavirus data doesn’t resemble a backyard blaze, but a full-fledged forest fire.
Indiana posted the worst infection rate in the country from Nov. 30 to Dec. 6, as it was the only state that recorded more than 1,000 new cases per million people.
On Wednesday, the number of counties falling under the Indiana State Department of Health’s red designation jumped from 16 to 36. The state’s remaining 56 counties, including Bartholomew, fell under the orange label, and no county could claim yellow or blue status.
When looking at just the weekly cases, all 92 counties are currently in the red — meaning there are at least 200 cases per 100,000 residents in each county. Seven counties were over 1,000 cases per 100,000 residents as of Wednesday.
In response to the COVID combustion, Holcomb put out some new directives.
All hospitals must now postpone or reschedule all non-emergent (elective) procedures from Dec. 16 to Jan. 3 to lessen the strain on healthcare workers. The state implemented similar guidance in April, but this time it only affects inpatient procedures.
The order will not change much at the local level. Two of the area’s largest hospitals, Schneck Medical Center in Seymour and Columbus Regional Hospital, have already been limiting elective procedures and have moved staff across departments due to capacity issues.
Holcomb also tweaked his social gathering rules to only allow 50 people at events in orange counties and 25 for red. However, those rules don’t apply to K-12 events and college and pro sports teams, which are still allowed 25% of a venue’s capacity.
Unfortunately, those additional orders by the governor — minor changes among rules that are in many cases loosely, if at all, enforced — offer little hope of managing the COVID inferno.
It makes sense that the state is taking a more targeted approach, but the current recommendations won’t lead to significant changes.
Hopefully the recent developments will wake-up Hoosiers downplaying the pandemic. If conditions don’t improve, there’s little doubt stricter measures could be taken by the state to make numbers more manageable.
Indiana’s on fire, and it’s going to take more than one proverbial fire department to stop it — it’s going to take actions by all Hoosiers to get it under control before it causes even greater harm to the community.
If behavioral change doesn’t happen soon, the damage could prove more catastrophic than imagined.
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