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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana has topped 6,000 confirmed or suspected COVID-19 deaths with the state also recording a new high for average daily coronavirus fatalities amid the ongoing infection surge.
The state health department’s Thursday update added 60 more recent coronavirus deaths to the statewide toll.
They boost Indiana’s total deaths of people with confirmed COVID-19 infections to 5,748, along with 285 deaths that doctors believe involved infections without confirmation from tests. Those give Indiana 6,033 coronavirus-related deaths since the first one was reported in March.
Gov. Eric Holcomb said Wednesday the state was bracing for a possible new surge of infections following Thanksgiving gatherings in the past week but that he didn’t plan on toughening any statewide restrictions.
Health officials across the state are worried about hospitals being overwhelmed by the influx of severely ill patients. Indiana hospitals have been treating more than four times the number of COVID-19 patients since late September when the state’s steep increase in hospitalizations and deaths began.
The state’s seven-day rolling average of COVID-19 deaths has reached 61 per day after that average was below 10 a day during July following the previous peak of 41 in April. The new average is up by one daily death with the health department’s Thursday update.
State health officials on Thursday also reported a one-day high of about 8,500 new COVID-19 infections, although it said some 400 were from old unreported tests. The previous daily high was nearly 8,300 infections reported on Nov. 13.
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