INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The Governor of Indiana said there will be no new mask mandate regarding schools.
Governor Eric Holcomb said, "I'm good with where we are from a state perspective;" and he’s not interested in dictating what happens in the schools, leaving those decisions up to the districts.
Meanwhile, Holcomb said he's focusing on getting more people vaccinated, as hospitals again deal with a surge in patients; most are unvaccinated.
The Indiana Department of Health reported Tuesday 57 coronavirus deaths over the past week, including 20 on Saturday and 17 on Sunday. The new deaths raised Indiana's pandemic toll to 14,320, including confirmed and presumed coronavirus infections.
Indiana hospitals were treating 1,956 patients for COVID19 as of Monday — a nearly 30 percent jump in one week and up almost five times for the state’s level of about 400 patients a day six weeks ago in early July.
Hospitals reported treating about 500 people in intensive care units, taking up 23 percent of available ICU beds, compared to about 65 patients in three percent of ICU space in early July.
Medical professionals from five hospitals across the state spoke to CBS 4 In Indianapolis about the rise in hospitalized, COVID-19 patients.
“I mean the morale is plummeting,” Dr. Louis Profeta with St. Vincent Hospital told CBS 4 Indy. “We are losing nurses at a staggering rate.”
Registered nurse Jessica Kunkel said she and her colleagues often work multiple 12-hour days to care for some of the sickest COVID-19 patients in Franciscan Health’s Cardiac Critical Care Unit.
“We see the sickest of the sick. When you get sick — this sick — there’s no coming back from that,” Kunkel told CBS 4. “CPR is not fun. Coding a person is not fun. Once you get to the ICU-level of care, it’s hard and it’s hard on us.”
“We’re done having these debates,” added Dr. Profeta. “I mean the data is clear.
"Our numbers are going up every day. We have now over 20 patients in intensive care on ventilators. All of them are unvaccinated."
Governor Holcomb spoke to other Midwest governors, including JB Pritzker about a unified message on vaccinations.
"We know 98% or 99% of all positive cases, week after week after week, are unvaccinated; positive hospitalizations: unvaccinated; intensive care unit beds: unvaccinated; deaths: unvaccinated — so we know the answer to prevent those adverse reactions," Holcomb said.
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