State Health Dept. Announces Changes To COVID-19, Monkeypox Dashboards
September 30, 2022 at 12:18 a.m.
By Staff Report-
Beginning this week, the COVID dashboards at wwwcoronavirus.in.gov will be updated each Wednesday by 5 p.m. This change reflects a national shift to evaluating weekly metrics rather than daily case counts and will ensure that trends in COVID-19 activity remain available to the public and healthcare providers to help inform decisions, according to a news release from the Indiana Department of Health.
Breakthrough case counts and hospitalizations have been removed from the vaccine dashboard at www.ourshot.in.gov and from the youth dashboard in recognition of the fact that the widespread use of at-home tests, new variants and updated vaccines no longer provide a clear picture of breakthrough cases.
IDOH also has added a new wastewater surveillance dashboard that shows the results of SARS-CoV-2 tests conducted on untreated wastewater. Since people infected with the virus can shed it in their stool even if they do not have symptoms, wastewater surveillance can serve as an early warning that COVID-19 is spreading in a community.
“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made changes to our dashboards to ensure we are providing information that most accurately reflects the current situation so that individuals and communities can take steps to protect themselves and their families,” said State Health Commissioner Kris Box, M.D., FACOG. “These adjustments allow us to better evaluate COVID-19 activity in communities at a time when many cases go unreported due to the high use of home tests.”
In addition to the changes to the COVID-19 dashboards, IDOH has shifted to weekly updates of its monkeypox dashboard at https://monkeypox.health.in.gov to reflect declining case counts.
Visit the Indiana Department of Health at www.health.in.gov for important health and safety information or follow the department on Twitter at @StateHealthIN and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/StateHealthIN.
Beginning this week, the COVID dashboards at wwwcoronavirus.in.gov will be updated each Wednesday by 5 p.m. This change reflects a national shift to evaluating weekly metrics rather than daily case counts and will ensure that trends in COVID-19 activity remain available to the public and healthcare providers to help inform decisions, according to a news release from the Indiana Department of Health.
Breakthrough case counts and hospitalizations have been removed from the vaccine dashboard at www.ourshot.in.gov and from the youth dashboard in recognition of the fact that the widespread use of at-home tests, new variants and updated vaccines no longer provide a clear picture of breakthrough cases.
IDOH also has added a new wastewater surveillance dashboard that shows the results of SARS-CoV-2 tests conducted on untreated wastewater. Since people infected with the virus can shed it in their stool even if they do not have symptoms, wastewater surveillance can serve as an early warning that COVID-19 is spreading in a community.
“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made changes to our dashboards to ensure we are providing information that most accurately reflects the current situation so that individuals and communities can take steps to protect themselves and their families,” said State Health Commissioner Kris Box, M.D., FACOG. “These adjustments allow us to better evaluate COVID-19 activity in communities at a time when many cases go unreported due to the high use of home tests.”
In addition to the changes to the COVID-19 dashboards, IDOH has shifted to weekly updates of its monkeypox dashboard at https://monkeypox.health.in.gov to reflect declining case counts.
Visit the Indiana Department of Health at www.health.in.gov for important health and safety information or follow the department on Twitter at @StateHealthIN and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/StateHealthIN.
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