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Indiana COVID-19 Cases Surpass 100,000, Monroe County Sees An Uptick

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IU testing

On-campus residence hall move-in included mandatory drive-through COVID-19 testing at Memorial Stadium. (Ethan Burkes, WFIU/WTIU News)

Noon Edition airs on Fridays at noon on WFIU.

Positive COVID-19 cases in Indiana topped 100,000 this week.

The state’s 7-day average for daily positive tests has remained relatively consistent since the spike in July, and even showed some signs of decreasing. As of September 9, it sits at 7.2 percent. 

In Monroe County, the seven-day positivity rate for newly tested individuals is 15% — double that of the state average. On Aug. 31, the same rate in Monroe County was 3.5%.

Within the Indiana University Bloomington community, there has also been an uptick in positive COVID-19 cases.

Since August 22, IU has identified 1,370 cases across all of its campuses. Most of these are from Bloomington’s campus. 

Last week, IU mitigation testing reported the positivity rate among communal living, which means Greek houses, was nearly 25 percent.

By September 2, The Monroe County Health Department had ordered over half of Greek houses to quarantine because of the high rates. The university has urged these students to reevaluate their living situation. IU can’t force students to move because it doesn’t own the Greek houses.

The nation’s leading voice on the response to the coronavirus outbreak, Dr. Anthony Fauci said the best thing is for students to isolate themselves at college so they don’t spread the virus to their families back home.

IU’s mitigation testing also says the positivity rate across Bloomington’s campus is 7.26 percent. In dorms it’s 3.6 percent.

A September 8 update reported symptomatic testing across all campuses shows a 46.32 percent positivity rate. On Bloomington’s campus that rate is 50.1 percent.

If a student has tested positive for the virus or been exposed, they move into quarantine and isolation housing. On Bloomington’s campus 34 percent of that housing is in use currently.

Upon arrival to campus in August, all IU students had to be tested for COVID-19. Of the tests conducted Aug. 11-23 around 1 percent were positive.

This week, we’re talking about positivity rates both at the state and local levels.

You can follow us on Twitter @NoonEdition or join us on the air by calling in at 812-855-0811 or toll-free at 1-877-285-9348. You can also send us questions for the show at news@indianapublicmedia.org.

Note-This week of our guests and hosts will participate remotely to avoid risk of spreading infection. Because of this we will not be able to take callers live on-air.

Guests

Maggie Mulligan, Indiana University student, sophomore

Dr. Aaron Carroll, Director of Surveillance and Mitigation for the COVID-19 Pandemic at IU

Penny Caudill, Monroe County Health Department administrator

Dr. Tom Hrisomalos, MD IU Health Southern Indiana Physicians provider, specializing in infectious disease

 

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