Indiana passes 20,000 COVID-19 deaths as omicron surge continues

COVID-19 has now claimed the lives of more than 20,000 Hoosiers since the start of the pandemic.

Tuesday, the Indiana Department of Health added 134 new deaths to its COVID-19 dashboard. Those deaths combined with those added over the weekend brought the total confirmed deaths from COVID-19 to 20,167.

An additional 761 deaths are considered probable COVID-19 deaths.

Indiana's death toll from COVID-19 would fill the University of Notre Dame's Joyce Center more than twice, and is nearly the population of LaPorte. It's the equivalent of two Plymouths.

'It comes in waves.':South Bend area hospitals, already strained, brace for new COVID surge

At the peak of the coronavirus surge in the fall and winter of 2021, more than 100 people a day were dying. In the wake of vaccines, however, the death toll has been lower since that point, even as cases and hospitalizations recently his new highs on the heels of the omicron variant.

Earlier this month, the seven-day daily average for death hit 65. 

More:COVID-19 cases setting records in South Bend area schools as students return from break

On Tuesday, there were some positive signs that omicron may be on a downward path. After spiking at a seven-day daily case average of 14,518 cases last week, the seven-day average has been slowly but steadily falling to 13,676. 

The positivity rate, which lags seven days behind to allow for delays in reporting, appears to be at this point leveling off at just above 30%.

Contact IndyStar reporter Shari Rudavsky at  shari.rudavsky@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter: @srudavsky.