INDIANAPOLIS — COVID-19 hospitalizations have hit an all-time high, according to the latest numbers reported Tuesday by the Indiana State Department of Health.
The health department said COVID hospitalizations climbed to 3,467 on Monday, topping the previous pandemic peak of 3,460, reached on Nov. 30, 2020.
Hospitalizations related to COVID have risen 22% over the past month and 167% over the past two months.
COVID patients occupy 38.4% of Indiana’s intensive care unit beds. The state has 10.6% of its ICU beds available overall.
“Indiana hospitals are overwhelmed with the highest number of patients on record and have reached a state of crisis with dwindling capacity left to care for patients,” Indiana Hospital Association President Brian Tabor said in a statement. “Our emergency departments are seeing 8,500-10,000 visits per day, and at any given point there are several hundred patients boarding in emergency departments around the state awaiting open beds.”
Tabor said hospital patient volumes are expected to climb for the next couple of weeks. He also urged Hoosiers to seek COVID-19 tests at primary care sites including physician offices and urgent care centers and not at hospital emergency rooms.
The state health department also reported 110 new deaths from COVID, increasing the cumulative death toll to 19,194. The seven-day moving average of deaths was 32 per day.
Another 11,932 Hoosiers tested positive for COVID, the department said.
More than 3.58 million Hoosiers had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Tuesday at 5 a.m. More than 1.5 million Hoosiers have gotten vaccine boosters.
The department said 59.6% of Indiana residents 12 and older are fully vaccinated.
