INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — Indiana is moving forward with it's plan to reopen with Stage 3 for most counties just days away.
It comes at the same time as the results of a study on COVID-19 in Indiana is released.
The information includes how deadly the virus has been and just how many Hoosiers are still potentially at risk of getting it.
Prevalence of COVID-19
Indiana University and the Indiana State Department of Health released the findings on the first phase of the study on Wednesday.
It did a random sampling of the state by checking 5,000 Hoosiers for COVID-19 or antibodies to the virus.
It found that 1.7 percent of the participants had the infection and 1.1 percent had antibodies at the time of the test.
Those results were then used to determine that around 2.8 percent of Hoosiers (186,000) have or have recovered from COVID-19. That leaves approximately 6.5 million Hoosiers that have not yet caught the virus.
"By slowing the spread of the virus, we now have bought some time to determine the best way forward," said Nir Menachemi, lead scientist on the study and a professor and Fairbanks Endowed Chair in the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI. "However, it is important to stress that the vast majority of the people in Indiana have not been infected and represent the minimum pool of still-susceptible individuals. Therefore, as we slowly phase back and open the economy, we need to be extra-vigilant with any and all safety precautions so that we do not lose the ground that we gained by hunkering down."
The study also found about 44.8 percent of Hoosiers are asymptomatic, which means they showed no symptoms at all.
Fatality rate in Indiana
As of Wednesday, Indiana had reported 1,482 deaths as a result of COVID-19 and another 137 deaths that were most likely the result of COVID-19.
The study estimated the infection-fatality rate for COVID-19 in Indiana to be 0.58 percent.
That's nearly six times the fatality rate for the flu at 0.1 percent.
The next phases of testing are planned for early June, October and April 2021.
