Indiana Adds More Than 100,000 New COVID-19 Cases In 17 Days

Indiana has crossed 300,000 positive COVID-19 cases. Monday’s newly reported cases were the fewest in nearly a week – though the state has reported more than 5,000 cases every day since Nov. 10.

It was just 17 days ago Indiana hit 200,000 positive cases. It’s hard to compare Indiana’s cases and testing from March to November – it’s not an apples to apples comparison because of the nationwide struggles to expand testing capacity.

From Nov. 6 to Nov. 23, cases increased by 50 percent, but testing only grew by 17.6 percent.

From Sept. 6 – when we hit 100,000 cases – to Nov. 23, cases increased by 200 percent and testing increased by 82.4 percent.

While testing has increased, it doesn’t perfectly explain the exponential rise in new cases.

Four counties – Adams, Benton, Jefferson, and Wabash – have more than doubled their cases in the last 17 days. Marion County added the most new cases by far, with nearly 12,000.

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In that same time, the state went from just more than 2,000 Hoosiers hospitalized with COVID-19 to 3,219 – setting an all-time record.

State officials have said the goal is to get Indiana’s positivity rate below 5 percent. Since Sept. 7, if the state’s positivity rate were below 5 percent, it would be at about 117,000 positive cases.

Since Indiana moved to Stage 5 of its reopening plan on Sept. 26, the state has reported 183,546 positive COVID-19 cases. Its seven-day moving average has increased by 640 percent.

Contact Lauren at lchapman@wfyi.org or follow her on Twitter at @laurenechapman_.