In the last few days, the news has been “good”-ish. More accurately: it’s getting less bad. Wednesday set a record for new cases with 3,626. That’s nearly 29% higher than the previous record and the first time above 3,000. The next two days were also above 3,000, but not record-breaking. Still, the rate of increase appears to be slowing.

The trends look better for hospitalizations, which seem to have plateaued just shy of this spring’s peak. Given the still-increasing positivity rate, I would expect this to be short-lived. It’s a welcome change, regardless. Statewide, Indiana is not showing the hospital capacity problems that some areas have seen recently. It’s not clear without digging into each county’s stats if there are areas within the state with that problem.

Similarly, the deaths have largely plateaued as well. We’re holding relatively steady at just above 30 deaths per day (although there still seems to be a gentle increase). This brings us closer to the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation’s (IHME) October 15 and October 22 forecasts. The October 29 forecast, while not dramatically different in methodology, shows a more rapid rise in deaths. The peak moves a little earlier in December, but is not much higher than the last two forecasts. It also has a longer tail. As of right now, it appears to over-forecast deaths compared to current observations. However, as more data rolls in over the coming days, that may change.

Apart from adding more data, the only change I made this week to my dashboard is to remove older forecasts from the comparison. This brings it in line with the forecast error graph and makes it a little easier to read.