Local health officials on Friday reported five additional coronavirus-related deaths, bringing the county’s death toll to 50.
One of the five newly reported deaths was an 86-year-old Franklin resident, said Betsy Swearingen, director of the Johnson County Health Department. Demographics for four of the newly reported deaths were not immediately available. Newly reported deaths are not necessarily new deaths.
The county health department also reported 26 more laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases, bringing to 515 the number of cases in the county.
A spokesperson for Otterbein Franklin SeniorLife Community, a senior care facility where a COVID-19 outbreak has occurred, said Friday there hasn’t been a lot of movement in terms of numbers. Otterbein had been giving weekly updates on the status of the situation. As of April 17, 10 residents had died, and 28 residents and 20 employees had been diagnosed with the virus.
They will likely provide a more detailed update early next week, said David Sease, Otterbein Franklin’s spokesperson.
The Indiana State Department of Health on Friday said the number of positive cases for COVID-19 in the state has risen to 13,680, following the emergence of 641 more cases.
The count is the highest number of new cases reported by the department in a daily report since the beginning of the pandemic.
The previous high was 612 on April 17.
The state reported 601 new cases on Thursday, 341 on Wednesday, 411 on Tuesday, 476 on Monday, 569 on Sunday and 487 on Saturday.
The state said Friday that the cumulative death toll in the state rose to 741, up from 706 the previous day—an increase of 35.
The department said this week it would now include presumptive positive deaths in its totals. Presumptive positive deaths are not necessarily verified by tests, but includes deaths in which a doctor listed COVID-19 as an underlying cause.
New positive cases, deaths and tests have occurred over a range of dates but were reported to the department in the previous day.
The department reported the state’s first case on March 6.
The state reported that 75,553 people have been tested so far, up from 72,040 in Thursday’s report—an increase of 3,513 tests.
The ISDH said the test numbers reflect only those tests reported to the department and the numbers should not be characterized as a comprehensive total.
Nearby Indianapolis reported 4,537 cumulative cases—up from 4,408 the previous day, an increase of 129 cases.
The state reported 238 cumulative deaths in the city, up from 228 in Thursday’s report. The state said 21,195 people have been tested.
As for surrounding counties, Hamilton had 670 positive cases; Hendricks 582; Boone 177; Hancock 171; Madison 379; Morgan 128; and Shelby 154.
Every Indiana county has at least one case.
The department said 44.3% of the state’s intensive care unit beds were still available. About 19% are being used by COVID-19 patients.
The department also said 78.3% of the state’s ventilators were available. About 10% were being used for COVID-19 patients.
Health officials say Indiana has far more coronavirus cases—possibly thousands more—than those indicated by the number of tests.
As of Friday morning, 870,468 cases had been reported in the United States, with 50,031 deaths, according to a running tally maintained by health researchers at Johns Hopkins University & Medicine. More than 80,900 people have recovered.
More than 2.74 million cases have been reported globally, with 192,982 deaths. More than 752,800 people have recovered.
The Indianapolis Business Journal contributed to this report.Â
