Indiana COVID-19 hospitalizations set new peak over weekend

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Indiana's hospitals had more COVID-19 patients than ever before over the Thanksgiving weekend and the number under intensive care unit treatment also continued its recent steep increase.

The Indiana State Department of Health's daily update on Monday also reported 38 more coronavirus deaths occurring over the past several days.

Those newly recorded deaths come as the state's seven-day rolling average of COVID-19 deaths has surged to 56 per day as of last week - more than five times the rate in late September and pushing it well ahead of the early pandemic peak of 42 a day in April.

November has been Indiana's deadliest COVID-19 month and health officials have repeatedly raised concerns about Thanksgiving gatherings leading to another surge in cases. Hospital officials across the state are worried about being overwhelmed by the quickly growing number of severely ill patients.

Indiana hospitals were treating 3,401 COVID-19 patients as of Sunday - about a 350% increase since late September when Gov. Eric Holcomb lifted nearly all business and crowd size restrictions before reinstating some limits in mid-November.

Hospital intensive care units had nearly 970 coronavirus patients on Sunday, a number that has doubled in little more than a month.

Indiana has now recorded 5,723 coronavirus deaths, including both those with confirmed and presumed infections.