The state of coronavirus in Indiana for the week of Oct. 19

In the past week, Indiana has seen a number of major headlines related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

From Oct. 12 to Oct. 18, Indiana recorded a total of 12,762 new coronavirus cases and 142 new deaths.

As of Sunday, COVID-19 hospitalizations in Indiana stood at 1,387. The state ended the week with 17.1% of ICU beds in use by COVID-19 patients, and 46.5% in use for other reasons.

From record high case counts,  state leaders testing positive for the disease and neighboring states implementing new travel restrictions, here’s a look at the recent COVID-19 developments in Indiana.

Chicago, Ohio add Indiana to quarantine lists

Chicago health officials on Tuesday added Indiana to the city's travel quarantine list.

That means anyone visiting or returning to Chicago from Indiana should immediately begin quarantining for 14 days upon entering the city. North Carolina, Rhode Island and New Mexico were also added to the order Tuesday.

The move comes just days after Chicago health officials placed Indiana on a warning list of states its residents are "strongly advised not to travel to." 

Indiana's placement on the list  came after a weekend where the state set a record high for new cases in a day, recording 1,945 new cases of the virus on Oct. 10.

Ohio health officials on Wednesday added Indiana to a COVID-19 travel advisory list, advising residents against traveling to the state.

People traveling from Indiana into Ohio are asked to quarantine for 14 days, regardless of whether the travel is work-related, according to the order. Seven other states are also on the list.

New state data shows which Indiana schools have been hit hardest by COVID-19

The Indiana Department of Health last week released detailed data about COVID-19 cases in the state’s schools in coordination with the school-based case dashboard that the state first published late last month.

About 600 schools have yet to report information, including those in the Indianapolis Public Schools, Carmel Clay and Hamilton Southeastern districts – some of the largest in the state. 

That means nearly three months since the first students returned to classrooms, it’s still hard to get a clear picture of how the illness is impacting schools.

Those schools that are participating in the state dashboard have reported 2,387 cases of COVID-19 among students, 481 cases among teachers and another 542 cases among other staff members.

An analysis of the new state data finds that high schools, which tend to have larger student populations and where students are often more social outside of the classroom, are reporting the highest number of cases. 

Of schools reporting to the state, the 10 with the highest number of cases among students are all high schools in Elkhart, Evansville — two communities seeing moderate to high community spread — or the Indianapolis-metro area. A Catholic school serving middle and high school grades in Lafayette is also on that list.   

Eli Lilly pauses enrollment of patients in experimental coronavirus treatment

Eli Lilly and Co. halted enrolling participants in a trial of an experimental treatment for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 on the recommendation of a data and safety monitoring board.

Company officials said the decision came out of an abundance of caution but provided no information on what sparked the move other than the advice from the independent board.  

“Safety is of the utmost importance to Lilly,” company officials said in an email. “Lilly is supportive of the decision by the independent DSMB to cautiously ensure the safety of the patients participating in this study.”

Sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the trial was exploring the use of a monoclonal antibody developed by Lilly and a Canadian company, AbCellera Diagnostics. The trial aimed to enroll people hospitalized with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19.

State Health Commissioner catches COVID-19

Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box on Wednesday said that she tested positive for COVID-19.

Box made the announcement by phone during the weekly coronavirus update with Gov. Eric Holcomb. She said that she did not have symptoms but has tested positive.

Her daughter and 23-month-old grandson have also tested positive for the virus, Box said.

Box, 62, told listeners that her grandson came home from daycare last Friday with what appeared to be a cold, which his mother later got over the weekend. 

After finding out on Tuesday that two of the daycare workers had tested positive for COVID-19, Box said she left work and took her daughter and her grandson to get tested. 

All three tested positive for the virus, and Box's daughter and grandson are "mildly symptomatic," she said.

Holcomb began to quarantine Wednesday and tested negative for coronavirus in subsequent tests.

Indiana tops 2,000 new cases in a single day

Indiana on Friday topped 2,000 new coronavirus cases for the first time, according to the state's online coronavirus dashboard.

About 300 of the 2,328 new cases added to the dashboard Friday resulted from a delay in reporting because of a technical glitch, state health officials said. 

Testing numbers also have climbed. The seven-day average for testing as of last Friday, the most recent day for which data was available, was 27,300.

The state saw an even higher number of new cases the next day when 2,521 additional cases were reported.

Indianapolis Colts COVID-19 scare ends with false positives

The Indianapolis Colts practice facility was closed Friday when four members of the Colts initially received positive results for COVID-19.

But the facility was re-opened by that afternoon when all four samples were re-tested and the results came back negative.

False positives have been an intermittent, issue for the NFL and BioReference Laboratories, the company contracted to handle all of the league’s testing, this season.

Under the agreement between the NFL and the NFL Player’s association, players, coaches and essential staff are tested daily; the league reported earlier this week that more than 400,000 tests have been run in the NFL this season.

False positives have affected several players and teams this season. The New Orleans Saints have had four separate false positives spread over multiple weeks, and in one case, a problem with a New Jersey laboratory caused 77 tests across the league to come back false, briefly shutting down several team facilities around the NFL.

IndyStar reporters Shari Rudavsky, Joel A. Erickson, Lawrence Andrea, Elizabeth DePompei, Arika Herron and MJ Slaby contributed to this story.

Call IndyStar reporter Justin L. Mack at 317-444-6138. Follow him on Twitter: @justinlmack.