As COVID cases spike, hospitals, Indiana Chamber make urgent plea to unvaccinated Hoosiers

A day after Gov. Eric Holcomb extended the state's public health emergency for the 22nd time because of the coronavirus, business and health leaders pleaded with the unvaccinated public to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Indiana Chamber of Commerce and Indiana Hospital Association, along with several chief executives, held a virtual statewide press conference Thursday in which they addressed how the current COVID-19 surge is impacting hospitals and workplaces.

"We want to deliver a message of urgency to get more Hoosiers vaccinated, to knock down these numbers and get our economy back on track," Indiana Chamber President Kevin Brinegar said.

The conference call occurred a day after Holcomb and the State Health Department held Indiana's first COVID-19 press conference in three months.

On Thursday, the Indiana Department of Health reported 12,020 new cases of COVID-19 —a record number— and 48 new deaths.

More: What we learned from Gov. Eric Holcomb at Indiana's first COVID update in months

Hospitals renew plea to Hoosiers

On Wednesday, Holcomb extended an order declaring the state's public health emergency for the 22nd time. The extension came as public health officials said COVID-19 hospitalizations were up 700% since June, the highest level in a year.

Brian Tabor, president of the Indiana Hospital Association, said the pandemic has taken a toll on the physical and mental health of Hoosiers, with hospitals across the state treating both COVID and non-COVID patients.

Hospitals are seeing the average patient with a greater level of acuity and staying longer at facilities, he said. That puts a strain on the number of hospital beds available at any given time.

As of Wednesday, almost 3,100 Hoosiers were hospitalized with COVID-19, a 32% increase since the beginning of December, Tabor said.

"This is an alarming trend, and it's part of an alarming trend that began back in November," he added. "Hospitalizations are up 149% since the middle of November."

Doctors, nurses and other hospital staff across Indiana are tired and stretched thin as the number of Hoosiers seeking COVID tests and care for a variety of illness rise, Tabor said. Emergency rooms are strained.

And now with omicron, the newest highly contagious variant, rapidly spreading, health officials are issuing more urgent pleas to the unvaccinated, who comprise most hospitalizations.

"We're just here today to ask everyone to do their part and understand how these capacity constraints affect everyone," he said. "It also affects our businesses ability to continue their operations as normal and to continue our economic recovery."

'Completely unacceptable': Indiana residents hunt and wait for COVID tests

Dr. Daniel McCormick, CEO of Franciscan Health Crown Point in northwest Indiana, said all regions of the state will be under the same duress if the pandemic holds.

The hospital has been at crisis levels for both staffing and physical beds since Thanksgiving, McCormick said. Just this week, Franciscan Health Crown Point had 25 patients holding in the emergency room for beds while another 50 to 60 patients were just waiting to be seen.

That results in longer wait times for non-COVID related illnesses.

In southwest Indiana, Good Samaritan Hospital CEO Rob McLin said the ICU beds are maxed out and they are seeing more patients on ventilators.

"COVID is running strong in Knox County, and really in the region surrounding Knox County," he said. "We're in orange status but moving quickly to red with 30-plus percent positivity rates."

The hospital's COVID patients are roughly 90% unvaccinated, he said.

During the week of Christmas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the deployment of a 20-person team of U.S. Navy physicians, nurses and respiratory technicians to provide relief to overworked staff at IU Methodist Hospital in downtown Indianapolis.

The deployment occurred after state health officials announced that the Indiana Guard members would help provide support to overworked staff at Indiana hospitals. IU Health System was not part of the Thursday's press conference, but it did issue out a call to action on Twitter.

"Our hospitals are taking in more patients than we have beds. Treating strokes, cancer and car accidents is becoming a daily challenge. What can you do to help? Get vaccinated. Get boosted. Get tested. Get masked," the health system tweeted.

Tabor said hospitals are being nimble in finding space to treat patients, putting them in hallways or conference rooms as ICU beds dwindle. The percentage of available ICU beds for critical care patients is less than 13%, Tabor said.

"We're here today to make renewed pleas for everyone to do their part so that the health care system can operate as normal and so that businesses can operate as normal," he said. "Hospitalizations right now are at 90% of the peak — at any point throughout this pandemic. It was last year, a little bit earlier in the year in 2020, where we saw the greatest number of Hoosiers hospitalized with just COVID and we're almost at that level today."

Business leaders fear losing workers

Brinegar said the new spike in COVID-19 cases is compounding labor and supply chain issues for private businesses still under strain by the prolonged pandemic.

"It is becoming increasingly clear that a vaccinated workforce is absolutely essential to Indiana's future economic health," Brinegar said. "Many Hoosier businesses can't afford to have another COVID outbreak or temporarily close."

He pleaded with the unvaccinated Hoosiers, saying Hoosiers needs to remain vigilant and work together to ensure workplaces are as safe and virus free as possible, particularly with the onset of the highly-contagious omicron variant.

"Workforce shortages, due to COVID among many employers, is directly impacting the supply chain, compounding those problems and contributing to the rising inflation that has reached 30 year highs," Brinegar said. "When supply goes down, prices go up."

Meanwhile, Scott Davison, president and CEO of Indianapolis-based OneAmerica, said the company is now requiring employees to be vaccinated.

Two years of remote work is no longer working for the company which has about 84% of its employees vaccinated. Davison said. OneAmerica needs to move to a hybrid-work schedule, but vaccinated employees have been clear: They want no part in comingling with unvaccinated colleagues in an open office environment.

The company fears losing highly-valuable employees if it forces them to comingle.

"Someone made it very, very clear that if we try to comingle them with with unvaccinated people, they'll consider that our workplace is not safe even though we have medical grade HVAC in our buildings," Davison said.

Chamber announces vaccine plan

The chamber is also partnering with Franciscan Health's immunization department to offer free COVID-19 vaccine clinics that will come on site to employers in all 92 counties.

The initial Pfizer vaccines and boosters will be available. Brinegar said the only requirement is that employers gather groups of 15 — which can include employees and their spouses — for the clinics.

More: How to get tested for COVID-19 in Indiana

Employers that do not meet the 15-person threshold can pay a $50 fee for the clinic. To aid with testing, Brinegar said the chamber is promoting the state's database of testing resources, and the organization has partnered with Patient Choice Laboratories as a testing vendor.

Get tested: After the COVID test swab goes up your nose, it goes to this Indianapolis testing lab

The company provides RT-PCR COVID testing statewide, with results shipped within 24 hours of receipt. Brinegar added that test kits can be shipped to employers anywhere in the state. Patient Choice Laboratories will pick up to tests and analyze.

"With at home rapid tests in such scarce supply, this is a very accurate alternative that has quick turnaround," he said. "Patient Choice Laboratories has capacity."

Contact IndyStar reporter Alexandria Burris at aburris@gannett.com or call 317-617-2690. Follow her on Twitter: @allyburris.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: COVID in Indiana is spiking. This is what hospitals want you to know.