Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box encourages Hoosiers to follow the latest developments in guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) when it comes to protection from COVID-19 and the Delta variant.
She made comments during a press conference held in Indianapolis Friday afternoon.
Dr. Box stated, “This week the CDC issued new guidance recommending that everyone aged two and older wear a mask in public indoor settings in areas with substantial or high transmission of COVID-19 even if they’re fully vaccinated. The Indiana Department of Health is strongly urging Hoosiers to follow this guidance. This also applies to students, staff and teachers in our K-12 schools regardless of the level of community spread.”
She added that any close contacts of a positive case should get tested three to five days after exposure, even if fully vaccinated. A mask should be worn until the test comes back negative.
“If you become symptomatic, even if you’re fully vaccinated, get tested and wear a mask until you are symptom free and you have a negative test result.”
These guidelines were put in place to help protect people against the COVID-19 Delta variant which can be spread as easily as chicken pox or measles.
Dr. Box continued, “Each infected person can infect an average of eight or nine other people. It has surged to become the predominant variant nationally and in Indiana since May, and represents more than 90 percent of the samples we sequenced in July. Keep in mind that not every positive COVID case is tested to see if it’s a variant. New data shows that people who are infected with the Delta variant have higher viral loads. This means that they have more virus in their body than people who were infected with previous variants.”
She noted that a lot of that is being seen in long-term care facilities which are seeing outbreaks. Those outbreaks have resulted in nine deaths in those facilities, but only one of those residents was fully vaccinated.
Hoosiers aged 12 and older are eligible to receive a free COVID-19 vaccine. Many sites welcome walk-ins. Visit www.ourshot.in.gov for more information or call 211.
