After hitting pandemic lows for new COVID-19 cases, Indiana is seeing new spikes in infections. Wednesday was the second day in a row with more than 700 new cases reported – the highest since May 21.
June’s daily cases reached a pandemic-low average – just 284 cases per day. But cases have begun to climb again. July’s average so far is more than 400 cases per day – a more than 40 percent increase in three weeks.
Taking into account population, Benton and Fountain counties lead the increases with more than 100 new cases per 10,000 residents.
Since Indiana’s pandemic low on July 3, hospitalizations have grown by 50 percent.
The Indiana Department of Health reports more than 70 percent of sampled COVID-19 cases in July are the more infectious delta variant – an increase of nearly 40 percent from June.
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Deaths remain low. In the last two months, only eight counties have reported more than 10 deaths: Marion, Lake, Elkhart, Hamilton, Howard, Allen, St. Joseph and Tippecanoe counties. And statewide, the state has added a little more than 400 new confirmed deaths to its total.
Contact Lauren at lchapman@wfyi.org or follow her on Twitter at @laurenechapman_.
