INDIANAPOLIS — State health officials on Tuesday said they have requested more personal protective equipment from the federal government and are working with major hospital systems to assess their capacity to handle a surge of COVID-19 patients in the coming weeks.
The announcements, made by Indiana State Health Commissioner Kris Box in a news conference on Tuesday, came as Indiana State Department of Health reported 106 new cases of COVID-19 in Indiana, including the first cases in Brown and Jackson counties, and five deaths, increasing the statewide total to 365 cases and 12 deaths.
No new cases were reported in Bartholomew County on Tuesday, with the county being listed with five positive test results.
“We know that personal protective equipment is still a concern and we have requested the rest of the Indiana share from the Strategic National Stockpile,” Box said during the news conference. “We’re also hoping to receive (Federal Emergency Management Agency) supplies. To supplement, industries and organizations from all over the state have donated PPEs to their local hospitals and their health departments. Department of Corrections is making gowns and masks and several other manufacturing companies are stepping up to help us out.”
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GM is Kokomo is ramping up production of ventilators Intech Life systems to increase production of ventilators, Box said.
The Indiana State Department of Health is working with major hospital systems to understand their capacity for intensive care unit beds and ventilators and what their realistic capacity would be for an expected surge of patients, Box said.
Additionally, the Indiana State Department of Health is working to remove barriers to allow retired health care employees to return to work in some capacity to help with the crisis.
Box said ISDH plans to continue targeted testing, instead of testing everyone who is sick and will leave the decision on whether someone should get tested to clinicians.
As of Tuesday, Bartholomew County health officials had tested 275 people for COVID-19, and had 47 negative results, with the remaining tests still pending.
A total of 2,931 tests have been reported to ISDH to date.
“I want to emphasize that we are still in the very early parts of this outbreak,” Box said. “We will continue to see more cases. Every state is having to adapt daily as the situation changes. That includes how we investigate cases. Across the country, states are finding that the traditional approach to investigating cases and tracking down every single contact of a person who tested positive is not sustainable.”
The number of cases continued to rise in much of the world on Tuesday, with at least 414,000 cases reported globally, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, which tracks cases reported around the world.
There were at least 51,542 cases reported in in the United States, including at least 25,600 cases in New York state, 3,600 in New Jersey and 2,300 in Washington state.
After Brown and Jackson counties reported cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, every county bordering Bartholomew County has had at least one case of the virus. Johnson County, where many residents travel into Columbus for work, was reporting 18 cases with three deaths.
The Brown County Health Department confirmed that county’s first case on Monday and is working to identify who the patient may have come into close contact with. Details about the patient, including age and if the patient had any underlying health conditions, were not released.
The Jackson County Health Department confirmed that the county’s first patient is in isolation at Schneck Medical Center and is investigating who may have been in close contact with the patient, according to a joint statement from Jackson County Health Department and Schneck Medical Center.
So far, cases have been reported in 51 of Indiana’s 92 counties, including:
One case: Brown, Dubois, Harrison, Jackson, Lawrence, Miami, Montgomery, Noble, Ohio, Porter, Putnam, Scott with one death, Shelby, Starke, Sullivan, Vanderburgh, Warrick, Wells
Two cases: Dearborn, Fayette, Gibson, Jennings, LaPorte, Owen, Tipton, Washington
Three cases: Boone, Grant, Madison, Monroe, Morgan, Tippecanoe, Vigo
Four cases: Delaware with one death, Elkhart, Hancock
Five cases: Bartholomew, Clark
Six cases: Decatur, Floyd, Howard, Ripley
Seven cases: Allen with one death, Franklin
13 cases: Hendricks
15 cases: St. Joseph
17 cases: Lake County
18 cases: Johnson with three deaths
25 cases: Hamilton
161 cases: Marion with three deaths
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A list of counties with cases and more information about COVID-19 are included in the Indiana State Department of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard, which is updated daily at 10 a.m.
Visit in.gov/coronavirus/ for more information and to access the dashboard.
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In an effort to offer a community-wide resource for citizens of Columbus and Bartholomew County, the COVID-19 Community Task Force, representing Bartholomew County Public Health, Columbus Regional Health, the City of Columbus, Bartholomew County government, Bartholomew County Emergency Management, Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. and other community stakeholders has launched the COVID-19 Community Task Force website. The website may be found at https://covid19communitytaskforce.org.
The website brings together information from the public health system, private health system and local governments in an effort to provide all citizens a one-stop location for all community resources and information. In addition to linking to resources and information, the website will also host regular “virtual press conferences” with the Task Force leadership.
The website, and its related Facebook page, will be updated continually as new information and resources are made available to the public.
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For the latest closings and cancellations, see Page A3.
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Federal officials are scrambling to broaden testing for the coronavirus after one of the government’s top health officials called the initial testing effort “a failing” and health care professionals, politicians and patients across the country complained about lack of access to testing, according to The Associated Press.
CRH officials acknowledged last week that there is a “shortage of testing supplies” and said relatively healthy people with a low fever and cough and are not that sick would likely be advised to stay at home and not seek medical attention.
However, people with symptoms such as shortness of breath or risk factors such as being older than 60 and/or having a compromised immune system should seek medical care and let their physician decide if a test will help direct their care.
Anyone with concerns are urged to call the health system’s Triage Resource Call Center, a phone resource line launched by CRH last week to handle calls from residents with questions and concerns about exposure or symptoms associated with COVID-19.
The phone line is open daily from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and is staffed by registered nurses who will offer screening questions and potentially recommend a course of action for patients, said CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue.
The phone resource line can be contacted at 812-379-4449.
Visit crh.org/news/2020/03/16/coronavirus-update-what-you-need-to-know for more information.
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