The Fishers COVID testing site near City Hall is seeing long lines of vehicles waiting for a test.  The Fishers COVID vaccination site on 116th Street just east of Brooks School Road is expanding their hours (9 a.m. – 7 p.m. Tuesday, December 28 through Thursday, December 30) and is accepting walk-ins.

In the state of Indiana, officials report 3,058 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 on Monday, up from 2,982 the previous day. COVID patients occupy 38.7% of Indiana’s intensive care unit beds.  170 deaths were reported Monday.

The COVID challenge is real and the numbers tell the story.

Fishers Health Department Epidemiologist Josh Robinson released his weekly video update Tuesday afternoon and there is not much good news there.

The most important number is the availability of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds in our area of the state.  The availability number is 7.1%, “….”among the lowest it’s been since they’ve started posting this online,” said Robinson.  “We expect that this level of low ICU bed availability will continue as Omicron further starts to take hold.”

According to Robinson, the overall community case incidence rate has gone way up…from 65.6 to 82.01.  In the last 14 days, 966 new COVID cases have been reported.  December 22nd, 2021, recorded the 4th highest daily case total…153 cases.

There was some good news in the health department’s weekly report.  The Hamilton County positivity rate is down from 20.2 to 18.5.  The Fishers testing site has seen a slight decrease in positivity…16.7 to 16.

The epidemiologist says the best protection from hospitalization and serious illness is the vaccine.  Robinson recommends the exercise of “mitigation measures.”  That includes wearing a mask when outdoors or out and about, in indoor settings with other people and the general practice of safe hygiene measures.

Even though the demand is high for COVID testing, Robinson recommends checking the Fishers Health Department Web page on testing at this link.  For any questions, call the department at 317-595-3211.

Here is Josh Robinson’s full video message: