U.S. Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) says Surgeon General Jerome Adams’s warning about Indianapolis being an upcoming COVID-19 hotspot should “put the scare factor into everyone.”
Yet Braun also says Indiana is well-positioned to respond to the crisis.
6/n There is more to do, but the bar has been significantly/ measurably raised in WA, CA, & NY. Millions of masks/ gloves shipped, new field hospitals built, Navy hospital ships sailed, and tens of thousands of repurposed anesthesia ventilators are available to respond to demand.
7/n We must now focus on flattening the curve AND raising the bar in emerging hotspots like New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit, LA, Miami, and Indianapolis.
We have the playbook, - but we must all increasingly run the plays faster and better as #COVID19 spreads the field.
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The Hoosier lawmaker shared medical equipment data on a video conference Monday that Gov. Eric Holcomb’s administration later refuted.
READ MORE: Indiana Releases Specific ICU Bed, Ventilator Numbers
Braun also says he supports extending social distancing guidelines through the end of April, saying he doesn’t want the state or country to backslide.
“And it’s a tricky dynamic in terms of how we do that and saving the economy and making sure that we don’t do irreparable damage to it,” Braun says.
Braun says disaster relief loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration should be available within the next week or two.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story quoted U.S. Sen. Mike Braun saying Indiana had 3,700 hospital beds with ventilators. He was incorrect. State officials say Indiana has 1,940 ICU beds and 1,177 ventilators.
Contact Brandon at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.
This is a rapidly evolving story, and we are working hard to bring you the most up-to-date information. However, we recommend checking the websites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Indiana State Department of Health for the most recent numbers of COVID-19 cases.