INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and other state officials on Wednesday announced that they will deploy the Indiana National Guard to all long-term care facilities in the state to assist staff as cases of COVID-19 continue to surge across Indiana.
Starting Nov. 1, members of the Indiana National Guard will be stationed at long-term care facilities to help screen employees, perform data entry, assist with testing and infection control protocols, among other tasks, Holcomb said during a news briefing on Wednesday.
The National Guard will initially be deployed to facilities that have reported at least one case of COVID-19 so far during the pandemic, and later expand to cover all facilities in the state, Holcomb said.
As of Oct. 14, there had been 9,427 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at long-term care facilities in Indiana over the course of the pandemic, including at least 280 cases and 40 deaths at seven facilities in Bartholomew County, according to state figures.
A total of 2,205 of the 3,790 deaths reported in Indiana, or 58%, have been in long-term care facilities.
“The state will be sending the Indiana National Guard to all long-term care facilities to assist with testing and reporting to allow existing facility staff to focus on patient care,” said Dr. Lindsay Weaver, chief medical officer at the Indiana State Department of Health, during a news briefing on Wednesday.
State officials also said they plan to complete infection-control inspections at all long-term care facilities in the state by the end of the week and send the facilities a total of 2 million N95 masks, 680,000 gowns and 400,000 face shields, Weaver said.
Additionally, Dr. Kristina Box, Indiana state health commissioner, briefly joined the news briefing remotely and said she was doing “great” after being diagnosed with COVID-19 last week.
Box said she had developed some symptoms since then, including fatigue, cough and a runny nose, but the illness was still mild.
The announcement to deploy the National Guard and shore up personal protective equipment at long-term care facilities came as COVID-19 transmission accelerates in more and more counties across the state and hospitalizations continue climbing to their highest levels since the spring.
A total of 1,484 people in Indiana were hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections as of Tuesday — up from 759 on Sept. 21 and the highest since May 5, according to state figures.
“We must take action because we have twice as many Hoosiers hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to late June and early July,” Weaver said.
On Wednesday, Bartholomew County joined a rapidly growing list of counties that have crept into the “yellow” category of moderate community spread in recent weeks on the Indiana State Department of Health’s color-coded county map.
The map measures weekly cases per 100,000 residents in each category and the seven-day positivity rate for all tests completed, according to ISDH. Each county is assigned a color based on the average of scores for the two metrics — blue, which indicates “minimal community spread;” yellow, which indicates “moderate community spread;” orange, which means “medium to high” spread; and red, which indicates “very high positivity and community spread.”
Four weeks ago, 58 of Indiana’s 92 counties — including Bartholomew County — were blue, 32 were yellow and two were orange, according to WIBC.
Currently, only eight counties remain blue, while 44 are yellow, 36 are orange and four are red.
Dr. Brian Niedbalski, Bartholomew County Health Officer, said he is continuing to monitor COVID-19 activity throughout the state, but does not plan to institute more restrictions on bars or restaurants in light of the increased local community spread.
However, there will continue to be a limit of gathering sizes to 500 persons or less “for the foreseeable future,” Niedbalski said.
“As numbers started to rise statewide, it seemed inevitable that there would eventually be an increase in cases in our county,” Niebalski said. “We have had two spikes since July, and both of these spikes have occurred roughly a month after holidays (Independence Day and Labor Day). This stands to reason that many individuals are still not taking the recommendations of mask wearing and social distancing seriously. I believe we will likely continue to see these spikes after major holidays, as there are larger gatherings during these times. The odds are that this trend will go on until a vaccine is readily available.”
