Statewide COVID-19 hospitalizations, cases climbing again
The Indiana State Department of Health on Tuesday reported 42 more COVID-19 deaths in the state, raising the total to 16,577.

The Indiana State Department of Health on Tuesday reported 42 more COVID-19 deaths in the state, raising the total to 16,577.
Pfizer reported earlier this month that its pill cut hospitalizations and deaths by 89% among high-risk adults who had early symptoms of COVID-19.
The latest suit, dated Monday, was filed in Louisiana on behalf of 12 states and comes less than a week after another lawsuit challenging the rule was filed in Missouri by a coalition of 10 states.
The slow climb in the vaccination rate coincides with recent increases in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
The debate comes at a critical time for the Biden administration, with top advisers growing increasingly fearful the country could slide backward into a fifth pandemic wave amid colder weather and declining vaccine protection.
Statewide hospitalizations due to COVID-19 decreased from 1,328 on Tuesday to 1,298 on Wednesday after rising for four straight days.
Applications for unemployment aid have been falling mostly steadily since topping 900,000 in early January and are gradually nearing prepandemic levels of around 220,000 a week.
To enforce President Joe Biden’s forthcoming COVID-19 mandate, the U.S. Labor Department is going to rely on employees concerned enough to turn in their own employers if their co-workers go unvaccinated or fail to undergo weekly tests to show they’re virus-free.
Pfizer asked U.S. regulators Tuesday to allow boosters of its COVID-19 vaccine for anyone 18 or older, a step that comes amid concern about increased spread of the coronavirus with holiday travel and gatherings.
Statewide hospitalizations due to COVID-19 increased from 1,226 on Sunday to 1,261 on Monday. COVID patients occupy 15.2% of Indiana’s intensive care unit beds.
The pandemic-related restrictions have closed the United States to millions of people for 20 months.
The Biden administration framed its vaccine mandate for larger private employers in life-and-death terms Monday in a legal filing that sought to get the requirement back on track after it was halted by a federal court.
Tens of thousands of holdouts have requested exemptions on religious grounds, complicating President Joe Biden’s sweeping mandate to get the country’s largest employer back to normal operations.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay of the requirement by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration that workers at certain businesses be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests.
Statewide hospitalizations due to COVID-19 decreased from 1,312 on Wednesday to 1,269 on Thursday.
Shares of Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co., which makes an antibody treatment for COVID-19 that requires infusions, were down 2.7% in late-morning trading Friday, to $263.76 each.
The initiative will direct $3.5 million to the area to help aid creation of a supportive housing development, an affordable rental housing program, an early childhood education center and a grocery.
Republican governors or attorneys general in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and South Dakota said Thursday they would file lawsuits against the mandate.
Pushback from Indiana’s Republican-led government came just hours after the Democratic administration of President Joe Biden finalized rules for federal vaccine mandates that are set to be enforced starting Jan. 4.
The Indiana State Department of Health on Thursday reported 2,065 more cases of COVID-19, up from 2,024 cases the previous day.