(CDC/Alissa Eckert, MS)
Indiana health officials reported an additional 38 confirmed or presumed coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday, raising the statewide death toll from the pandemic to 1,578 people.
The Indiana State Department of Health recorded 33 newly confirmed COVID-19 deaths that occurred between Wednesday and Monday, along with five additional death considered coronavirus-related by doctors but without confirmation of the illness from test results.
The latest state statistics list 1,444 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, along with 134 deaths with probable infections. Indiana’s earliest recorded coronavirus death was less than two months ago on March 15.
Monroe County has reported no new positive cases or deaths from yesterday leaving the numbers at 145 cases and nine deaths. A total of 1,875 Monroe County residents have been tested according to the ISDH numbers.
Tuesday's numbers show that 17.3% of the state's 2,725 existing intensive care unit (ICU) beds are currently being used by patients with COVID-19-related illnesses, while 44.6% are still available.
And as of noon Tuesday, 6.9% of the state's 3,059 total ventilators are being used by COVID-19 patients, while 81.1% are still available.
The state’s new centralized program for notifying those possibly exposed to coronavirus infections started Monday in 21 of Indiana’s 92 counties, said Dr. Kristina Box, the state health commissioner.
Those contact tracing efforts are being taken over from county health departments with the state’s $43 million contract with Virginia-based Maximus, which provides services for health care and other programs for many states and the federal government.
Box said Monday the company had already hired 325 people of a planned 500 for the contact tracing call center, with it taking over the work in more counties next week.
How Tuesday’s COVID-19 numbers compare to Indiana cities and towns.
25,127 people have tested positive for COVID-19, which is about the number of people who live in Brownsburg (pop. 25,264)
1,444 deaths have been reported, which matches the number of people who live in Milford in Kosciusko County.
150,510 Hoosiers have been tested, about the number of people who live in Evansville (pop. 118,952) and Michigan City (pop. 31,254) combined. That amounts to 2.2% of Indiana’s population of 6.732 million.
Matt Rasnic and Bob Zaltsberg contributed to this report.
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