Indiana’s state health commissioner is warning Hoosiers about the dangers of large group gatherings over the Labor Day weekend. During Wednesday’s briefing, Dr. Kris Box warned that COVID-19 can spread quickly, especially if people aren’t wearing masks and staying six feet apart.
“We saw a surge in patients after Memorial Day and our July 4 gatherings,” Box said. “I don’t want to see that surge after Labor Day. Make this weekend a safe one, Hoosiers.”
Social gatherings remain limited to 250 people, and special events larger than that have to be approved by the local health department. “Our local health departments have been looking at any gatherings that size or more or less and making sure that they are weeding out those ones that individuals are openly saying, ‘We can’t social distance, and we can’t wear masks at this.’ And so they are working within their communities and their counties, based on where they are, with regards to community spread, to change some of those,” Box added.
Box noted that the state continues to build up its contact tracing capacity. She said that between the state’s centralized contact tracing and local health departments, Indiana is on track to have more than 1,200 tracers around the state.
