Indiana reports 3,000-plus new COVID-19 cases for 2nd day

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Indiana reported more than 3,000 new coronavirus cases for the second straight day Friday as the state's new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continued to surge.

The Indiana State Department of Health also reported 26 newly recorded COVID-19 deaths, raising the state's pandemic death toll to 4,286, including confirmed and presumed coronavirus infections.

The 3,205 new infections reported Friday came one day after the state agency reported 3,649 new infections. Those cases reported Thursday set a daily high of newly reported cases of COVID-19 and were the first time Indiana had recorded more than 3,000 positive coronavirus cases in one day.

Indiana's seven-day rolling average for newly confirmed cases also rose to 2,608, according to the health department's daily update Friday of its coronavirus dashboard. That is the highest level the state has seen during the pandemic and more than triple the seven-day rolling average of 858 newly confirmed cases the agency reported on Sept. 22.

The coronavirus dashboard also showed that 1,662 Hoosiers are currently hospitalized with the coronavirus. That's down slightly from the 1,733 Hoosiers that Thursday's update showed were hospitalized - a number that was highest since early April.

More than 70% of Indiana's ICU beds are also in use, according to the health department. More of Indiana's ICU beds are now filled than at any other point in the pandemic so far.

Hospitalizations have grown since Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb announced on Sept. 23 his decision to lift nearly all of Indiana's COVID-19 restrictions while extending the statewide mask mandate.

Holcomb late Friday afternoon issued an executive order extending the state's public health emergency that was due to expire Sunday for another 30 days. It the eighth extension of the emergency over the outbreak that he originally declared in March.

To date, nearly 1.7 million people have been tested for COVID-19 in Indiana, and a total of 175,893 Hoosiers are known to have had the virus.