State Health Department Announces Changes to Indiana COVID-19 Dashboard

The Indiana Department of Health today announced changes to its COVID-19 dashboard. Beginning this week, coronavirus.in.gov will be updated each Wednesday by 5 p.m. Eastern Time, reflecting a national shift to weekly metrics. Breakthrough case counts and hospitalizations have been removed as widespread use of at-home tests, new variants and updated vaccines no longer provide a clear picture of the numbers. Added was a new wastewater surveillance dashboard. The state health department said the virus can be shed there without symptoms, so wastewater surveillance can serve as an early warning that COVID-19 is spreading in a community. “Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made changes to our dashboards to ensure we are providing information that most accurately reflects the current situation so that individuals and communities can take steps to protect themselves and their families,” said State Health Commissioner Kris Box, M.D., FACOG. “These adjustments allow us to better evaluate COVID-19 activity in communities at a time when many cases go unreported due to the high use of home tests.”