JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) -- For the second day in a row, Indiana reported more than 3,000 new cases of COVID-19 throughout the state. The state reported 3,649 cases on Thursday and 3,205 Friday.
"Those are high no matter how you look at it," said Clark County Health Officer Dr. Eric Yazel, "but it does depend a lot on how many tests are performed all across the state, and testing has really exploded over the last several days."
State records show Friday's case count comes from more than 40,000 tests in the last 24 hours.
Dr. Yazel said he focuses more on the unique positivity rate than daily case numbers. The latest data shows the unique positivity rate for the state is at 14.6%, according to the state's website. That information can also be broken down county by county.
Dr. Yazel said many people are experiencing 'pandemic fatigue,' especially after Indiana moved into its final reopening stage in late September.
"I think the numbers indicated it was appropriate to (move to Stage 5). The problem is, I think it's more of a conceptual thing, where it gave everybody a feeling of, 'hey we're done here' and you really saw the compliance of some of the recommendations slack off," said Yazel.
He said there is no single activity or area to blame for the widespread transmission.
"All the things we've been saying over and over again for the last several months still apply," he said. "Even though we're all tired of it, the numbers also show every time you kind of take your foot off the gas, we see an upswing in cases."
Compared to other states with similar population size, Dr. Yazel said he feels Indiana has remained in the middle of the road.
"There's some states that have had better numbers and some states that have had much worse numbers," he said.
"Lately we've been a little on the worse side of things," he added.
He said also brought up mental health, and said he doesn't want people to get overwhelmed with information. He said many of the socially distant activities like taking a walk, will soon not be happening nearly as much when it's cold and dark outside, and he doesn't want people's mental health to decline.
He said to find a trusted source and try to focus on information there.
In the meantime, he's hoping Indiana's case numbers will start coming down soon.
"We've seen a gradual upward trend, we've plateaued off a little bit and we hope that continues, but we know that could change on a moment's notice," he said.
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