Governor Holcomb says he has no plans to shut down the state. He began his weekly COVID-19 briefing Wednesday by dispelling a couple rumors that had begun spreading in the buildup to the election.
“We’ve seen some language out there that talks about how today, we’re going to announce that we’re shutting the state down,” Holcomb said. “False, 100 percent. No truth to that whatsoever. We also saw some information that said that our schools were going to go 100-percent virtual as of today. Again, false, 100-percent not true.”
Instead, Holcomb says the state will take a “surgical approach” to addressing the increase in COVID-19 cases. “I’m not going to shut commerce down and think that that will eliminate the spread or the positivity rate,” he said. “That would be the absolute. We are not in the same position that we were in the spring, and we have the capacity to care right now. When we start to lose that capacity to care, then we’re going to have to become more and more restrictive.”
He noted that local health departments have the authority to enforce COVID-19 precautions more strictly, but State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box added that the state may intervene in specific counties that continuously have very high spread. “The state can take action if a county stays in red for more than 14 days, with steps that could include restricting the size of gatherings and events, limiting capacity in businesses, limiting visitation in congregate care settings, and restricting attendance at K-through-12 events,” Box said.
Holcomb also disputed the idea that his sweeping victory in Tuesday’s election would give him more leverage with state lawmakers who oppose his executive actions. “The decisions that we make here have zero, zip, zilch, nothing, nada – I don’t know how to say it any clearer – to do with politics or campaigns,” Holcomb said. “The only campaign that we’re running here is a campaign to try to save lives.”
The governor felt the best way to slow the spread is for individual Hoosiers to do their part by masking up and taking precautions.
