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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 reported 17,684 new COVID-19 cases, the highest mark yet during the pandemic. The previous high was 16,563 reported on Jan. 14.
The health department also reported 95 more deaths from COVID-19, raising the official pandemic death toll to 19,992.
The state’s seven-day average of new deaths from COVID remained at 44 per day.
Every county in Indiana was colored red on the state’s advisory-level map Friday for the third day in a row. Red is the highest level on the four-color map, which means every county is seeing at least 200 new cases week per 100,000 residents and seven-day positivity rate for all tests of 15% or more.
The state said 74.3% of COVID test samples checked for their variant strain in January have been the Omicron variant while 25.3% were the Delta variant.
COVID-19-related hospitalizations dropped from 3,506 on Wednesday to 3,384 on Thursday. The pandemic high was 3,519 on Jan. 13. COVID patients occupy 33.1% of Indiana’s intensive care unit beds. The state has 9.6% of its ICU beds available overall.
More than 3.6 million Hoosiers had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Friday at 5 a.m. More than 1.6 million Hoosiers have gotten vaccine boosters.
The department said 60% of Indiana residents 12 and older and 62% of residents 18 and older are fully vaccinated.
COVID-19 cases
New COVID-19 cases: 17,684
Total cumulative cases: 1,524,527
COVID-19 deaths
New deaths: 95
Total cumulative deaths: 19,992
COVID-19 testing
New tested individuals: 12,892
Total cumulative tested individuals: 4,957,354
Cumulative positivity rate unique individuals: 29.8%
Cumulative positivity rate all tests: 10.3%
Seven-day positivity rate unique individuals: 44.1%**
Seven-day positivity rate all tests: 30%**
** The health department reports the 7-day positivity rates with a six-day lag to allow time for more comprehensive results.
County numbers
Marion County cumulative cases: 207,765 (increase of 2,112)
Marion County new deaths: 13
Marion County cumulative deaths: 2,558
Marion County 7-day positivity rate unique individuals: 45.9%
Marion County 7-day positivity rate all tests: 34.5%
Hamilton County cumulative cases: 73,638
Hendricks County cumulative cases: 36,850
Johnson County cumulative cases: 38,772
Madison County cumulative cases: 29,301
Boone County cumulative cases: 13,622
Hancock County cumulative cases: 18,857
Morgan County cumulative cases: 14,615
Shelby County cumulative cases: 11,877
COVID-19 vaccinations
Statewide totals (Dec. 14, 2020–Jan. 21, 2022)
First dose administered: 3,714,479 (daily increase of 2,631)
Fully vaccinated: 3,620,906 (daily increase of 2,874)
Booster doses: 1,622,131 (daily increase of 6,888)
Indiana intensive care unit usage
ICU beds in use by COVID-19 patients: 33.1%
Available ICU beds: 9.6%
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Meanwhile the Dolts in Indiana’s General assembly are passing laws to ban masking and vaccination mandates by employers attempting provide safer working conditions..
Why did young people have very low Covid rates before we started vaccinating them?
Bernard – try to keep up here. Omicron.
Whatever happened to small government, free markets and employment-at-will?
Let’s Go Brandon!
Republicans fault for refusing vaccination. Not Biden.
Latest report by Gotlueb: double fax and boosters are 50% effective against Omicron. Let’s run and get faxed and boosted! Not!
Yep, there’s a safer way…
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A folk singer from the Czech Republic has died after deliberately catching Covid, her son has told the BBC.
His mother was a member of one of the oldest Czech folk groups, Asonance. She had wanted to catch Covid so there would be fewer restrictions on her movement, Mr Rek explained.
Two days before she died, she wrote on social media that she was recovering: “Now there will be theatre, sauna, a concert”.
On Sunday morning, the day she died, Ms Horka said she was feeling better and dressed to go for a walk. But then her back started hurting, so she went to lie down in her bedroom.
“In about 10 minutes it was all over,” her son said. “She choked to death”.
Although she was unvaccinated, Jan Rek stressed that his mother did not believe in some of the more bizarre conspiracy theories about Covid vaccines.
“Her philosophy was that she was more OK with the idea of catching Covid than getting vaccinated. Not that we would get microchipped or anything like that,” he said.
There was no point in trying to discuss the issue with her as it would just get too emotional, he added. Instead, he hoped that by telling his story he could convince others to get vaccinated.
“If you have living examples from real life, it’s more powerful than just graphs and numbers. You can’t really sympathise with numbers.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60050996
The Indiana State Department of Health is doing a very poor job of reporting. Since November 2021 the daily reports have become more sporadic with huge catch up numbers. The latest shows 95 new deaths being reported from 8/13/2021 and 1/20/2022. Seems to me someone is 5 months behind in reporting a death. So the reported 44 deaths per day reported today could be 60(?) deaths per day TODAY when the data is reported three months from now. I know hospitals are struggling right now but surely someone could report a daily death to the State. And surely the State could report the total daily. Or maybe not. The public deserves accurate TIMELY data.
Dr. Box and Governor Holcomb have been the targets of nasty trolls who just delight in create chaos and uproar. These two leaders were doing what they thought was best for the state during the former president’s administration. The vaccine does save lives and keeps people out of hospitals. Our public health system in Indiana is underfunded.