Indiana – Indiana’s hospitalizations for COVID-19 patients has remained at record levels during the Thanksgiving weekend as the statewide daily average of coronavirus-related deaths continues its two-month stretch of steep increases.
The Indiana State Department of Health’s daily update on Saturday reported 69 more coronavirus deaths occurring over the past several days.
Those raised the state’s seven-day rolling average of COVID-19 deaths to 56 per day — more than five times the rate in late September and pushing it well ahead of the early pandemic peak of 42 a day in April.
November has been Indiana’s deadliest COVID-19 month and health officials have repeatedly raised concerns about Thanksgiving gatherings leading to another surge in cases. Hospital officials across the state are worried about not having enough health care workers to care for the quickly growing number of severely ill patients.
Indiana hospitals were treating 3,381 COVID-19 patients as of Friday — about a 350% increase since late September when Gov. Eric Holcomb lifted nearly all business and crowd size restrictions before reinstating some limits this month.
About 43% of the state’s intensive care unit patients had the coronavirus on Friday, about four times September’s rate.
Indiana has now recorded 5,663 coronavirus deaths, including both those with confirmed and presumed infections.
