Tippecanoe county is starting to see the effects of thanksgiving gathering.
Today we've reached 295 new positive covid-19 cases which is record breaking for a single day.
News 18's micah upshaw joins us live in lafayette to tell us why county health leaders are linking the recent holiday to these new cases.
Micah?
Health leaders say it's too early to determine exactly how many of these cases a linked to thanksgiving as they're still tracking.
But they tell me people are reporting that they gathered for the holiday and several groups of families are testing positive.
K:unfortunately, not enough people adhered to the guidance that we gave for thanksgiving.
M: now people are reaping the consequences.
Tippecanoe county health department administrator khala hochstedler said for the past few days, several county covid 19 cases have been linked to thanksgiving gathering.
And that trend is expected to continue over the next few days as the virus begins settling in people's immune systems. k: we're seeing cases linked to whole families getting together for thanksgiving and you think that at that day no one was feeling symptomatic and no one had any symptoms but you're infectious 48 hours before your symptoms start.
M: after seeing how people failed to follow thanksgiving gathering recommendations, hochstedler is highly concerned for the christmas season.
K: christmas is going to be the riskiest holiday, just because is a season and so a lot of time you celebrate christmas the whole month.
M: iu health officials are worried.
Chief medical officer doctor jim bien says the amount of hospitalized covid patients is overwhelmingly high.
J: we are seeing a crisis state right now.
M: he says the beginning of the pandemic brought in a few dozen covid-19 patients.
Now they're treating around 60.
He believes that number could rise to around 100 if people aren't careful this christmas season.
J: the hospitals are at capacity.
We are making decisions to defer necessary treatments for other problems because of the volume of covid-19 care that we have to provide.
Christmas, our holiday celebrations, news years, they have to look different then they have in the past.
Hoshstedler are hoping people hold out for a few more weeks as we wait for the vaccine.
Khala said she and her extended family are doing christmas over zoom.
Where they plan to eat and open presents over a virtual call.
She's hoping the community finds way to be creative the season as well.
Reporting live in lafayette, micah upshaw.
News 18.
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