Indiana experienced COVID-19 whiplash throughout 2021 – setting both pandemic lows and record highs for cases and hospital capacity. But what did 2021 look like in Indiana by the numbers?
The winter peak from December 2020 slowed significantly at the start of the new year, as the state began rolling out vaccine appointments for Hoosiers 80 and older.
The Indiana Department of Health reported 112,874 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered in 2020 – but no Hoosiers had received their second dose until Jan. 18, 2021. By the end of 2021, more than 3.5 million Hoosiers are fully vaccinated.
By March 31, when the state opened vaccine appointments to Hoosiers 18 and older, Indiana settled into a summer that set pandemic-low cases, hospitalizations and deaths. June averaged about six deaths, 282 new cases, and a statewide COVID-19 hospital census of 501 per day.
But the delta variant set off a new increase in cases and hospitalizations through the summer – with a brief respite in October.
As the year headed to a close, hospitalizations once again peaked with a second delta wave. Indiana averaged 1,876.2 new cases per day in October and 2,707.3 in November. In December, the state averaged 5,191.1 new cases per day.
The state’s COVID-19 hospital census averaged 2,868.1 patients in December, after eclipsing 3,000 for the first time in 2021 on Dec. 13.