GOVERNOR: Indiana Won't Lift COVID Restrictions Like Texas and Mississippi

WITZ RADIO NEWS IS AN AFFILIATE OF NETWORK INDIANA / PHOTO: WIBC 

STATEWIDE -- Indiana won't be joining Texas and Mississippi in lifting coronavirus restrictions.

Republican Governors Greg Abbott in Texas and Tate Reeves in Mississippi announced this week an immediate halt to mask mandates and all other restrictions, though local governments in Mississippi can still impose their own. President Biden blasted the decisions as "Neanderthal thinking," while Anthony Fauci, the nation's top epidemiologist, calls the moves "inexplicable" and "really quite risky."

Governor Holcomb declines to second-guess his counterparts, calling them "great leaders." But he says he won't be following suit. He says he's focused entirely on Indiana's COVID numbers. And while positivity rates have plunged to record lows over the last two months, Holcomb and State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box both say they're concerned COVID mutations will spark another surge.

Holcomb says the key to bringing the pandemic to an end is getting people vaccinated. Nine-percent of Hoosiers are fully vaccinated so far, while another 21-percent are under 16, the minimum age approved by the F-D-A. Holcomb will receive his own vaccination Friday morning, and says Indiana needs to push those numbers high enough to limit the virus's ability to spread.

Coronavirus hospitalizations in Indiana are at their lowest in eight months. But Box says the number of cases per capita, while dramatically improved, is still too high for comfort. 24 counties are still above Box's comfort zone of one case per 1,000 people each week, and Cass County is at a high-risk level, at one new case for every 382 people.

61 Indiana counties are under state-ordered capacity limits on social gatherings, and the mask mandate applies statewide, though there's no enforcement provision. Holcomb says the key to ending those requirements is getting enough people vaccinated.