Page last updated on September 7, 2021 at 1:12 pm
Hi, this is Mayor John Hamilton. It's Monday, November 16th, wanting to give a public update on COVID. Thanks to all who pay attention to this. This has been a really rough week. In the last two weeks since the election, we've been paying a lot of attention to that, but the virus has been dramatically increasing its spread in the country, in the state, and it is affecting us locally too. I'm sure you all see the national news, the extraordinary rise of cases. We're now well over 100,000 a day in the country which we never had before about 10 days ago. We're approaching 200,000 a day. Dramatic increases in that. The death rate rising significantly, hospitalizations are way up. Almost every state sees significantly increasing cases.
In Indiana, the numbers continue to rise very dramatically with great concern. A couple of data points. Roughly in September, the state of Indiana had eight or 900 cases a day on the moving average, eight or 900 a day. We have just hit almost 6,000 cases a day. It's climbed very steeply and steadily during October and into November to 1000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 cases a day, now nearly 6,000 cases a day in the moving average. That's a dramatic increase in how much disease is happening in the state. Deaths too have risen dramatically in the state.
In terms of the daily moving average, we're seeing it triple or so in the last month. All those new cases are going to lead to hospitalizations and more deaths in the weeks ahead after the diagnosis happens, we know that surge is coming. It is very dire and serious in the state of Indiana. Monroe County is doing better than most counties. We have done really good things together, but we are not isolated, we're not an island, that is affecting us. Our daily case rate is going up significantly. We know that's going to put a strain on our healthcare system. We may need to take additional steps here locally. It may be that the governor's steps will be imposed on Monroe County if our numbers continue to rise.
We're one of the five counties where that's not the case right now. But we do have tighter standards here in terms of gathering size, mask ordinance, and such. We will continue to monitor that, but all I can do is just urge and exhort please continue to wear your masks, continue to stay isolated from people as you can. I heard a doctor say don't share air with people if you can help it, other than your own household.
Just don't be in a situation where you're sharing air where that disease passes. That physical distance is important. As we go more indoors we're seeing that happen. Please continue to be vigilant and steady. We'll keep you posted, there'll be a press conference later this week, and watch for that. Thanks for all you're doing, and again, we're in a very serious situation so thanks for being very careful.
