Though Governor Holcomb announced that the statewide mask mandate would be downgraded to an advisory on April 6, he reminded Hoosiers that local governments can still maintain COVID safety guidelines as they deem appropriate. Monroe County announced COVID safety mandates would continue, including maintaining the mask mandate and capping gathering sizes at 50. The City of Bloomington will maintain stricter gathering mandates, limited to 15. These restrictions will be enforced until at least May 28.
While the statewide seven-day positivity rate reached as low as 3% last month, rates have now increased to 4.3%. Indiana has reported more than 100 cases involving variants, or mutated strains. Monroe County currently holds a 1% rate and is coded yellow on the state dashboard, which signifies a moderate spread of the virus.
It has been reported that the recent rise in COVID rates has been attributed to younger non-vaccinated groups, with cases in the 20-39 age bracket increasing 40%. Positivity rates in older populations have remained stagnant and fallen, suggesting that vaccinations are curbing the spread of the virus. Roughly 80% of Hoosiers 70+ have been vaccinated.
Graphic by Carson TerBush, Indiana University
IU mitigation testing has found a slight increase of positivity rates on the Bloomington campus. More can be found on the university’s COVID-19 dashboard.
MULTILINGUAL COVID-19 INFORMATION
For US residents who do not speak English, locating accurate and timely information pertaining to the pandemic and vaccinations can be extremely difficult. Indianapolis-based LUNA Language Services regularly provides COVID-19 information through their COVID-19 Multilingual Resource Center. Information from the CDC, Indiana State Department of Health, and others can be found in a variety of languages including Burmese, Chinese, French, Spanish, and several African, Asian, and European languages.
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