Monroe County confirmed 379 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, up from 352 Wednesday. This is the second day in a row the county reported a record number cases. In total, the county has reported 21,137 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.
No new deaths were reported.
The county’s positivity rate jumped to 21.5 percent, up from 20.6 percent Wednesday.
Hospitalizations in District 8, which includes Monroe, Brown, and Bartholomew counties, dropped to 123 from 128 Wednesday. Exactly 41 percent of the ICU beds in the district are occupied by COVID-19 patients, and 11.5 percent are still available.
These statistics factored into the Monroe County Board of Health extending its mask mandate for another month Thursday.
“It’s a good thing we have a mask mandate,” board member Mark Nurrell said. “But I sense that some of our high incidence of new cases over the past week are because Omicron gets around these cloth masks.”
“Now is the time to upgrade your mask. Upgrade it to an N95. Upgrade to a KN95.”
Statewide
The state confirmed 16,563 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, which is a new record for the most cases reported in a single day since the pandemic began. In total 1,410,021 Hoosiers have tested positive for the virus.
The state’s seven-day positivity rate is now 28.7 percent, up from 27.8 percent Wednesday.
The state also added 75 new deaths, bringing the pandemic total to 19,393.
Currently, 3,451 people across the state are hospitalized with COVID-19. This is down slightly from 3,488 Wednesday.
