Holcomb extending public health emergency order

On Feb 24, 2021

Even as he praised Indiana’s declining coronavirus numbers, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Wednesday he will extend the executive order that imposes county-level restrictions based on the rate of spread.

The order, which was set to expire Sunday, will be extended another 30 days. The state’s public health emergency order, which was set to expire Monday, will also be extended another 30 days.

Holcomb said the state’s COVID-19 numbers are “trending in the right direction” and have “made remarkable progress in a relatively short period of time.”

But he added several big events are headed to the state, including the NCAA tournament that will be hosted entirely in Central Indiana, including Indianapolis. The NCAA announced last week it will allow up to 25% fan attendance during the tournament.

“This is not a ‘mission accomplished’ moment,” Holcomb said. “We’re going to have a lot of action and we want to make sure we stay moving the ball up court, not squandering this place.

“And so that requires us to continue to play offense and defense just like they’re going to do during March.”

As of Monday, Indiana has reported 658,043 coronavirus cases and 12,039 deaths. While the number of daily reported deaths has declined since a December spike, Holcomb said it’s still an area of concern, noting 215 deaths were reported in the last seven days.

The state’s seven-day positivity rate for all tests sits at 4.1%.

As viral spread across the state has decreased, nine counties have now entered the blue zone for least restrictions and all but 10 others, which are orange, are in yellow for the second lowest level of restrictions.