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Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry has passed away after a brief battle with cancer.

More Than 10 Percent Of Hoosiers Have Been Infected With COVID-19, Says Fairbanks Study

Screenshot of a Zoom call

More than 10 percent of Hoosiers – that’s more than 700,000 people – have been infected with COVID-19 at some point.

That’s according to the latest update from the Fairbanks School of Public Health’s statewide COVID study.

Nir Menachemi leads the study. He said the percentage of Hoosiers ever infected jumped more than 35 percent in just the last month and a half.

“And we have evidence to suggest that an increase in infections among younger Hoosiers quickly translates into more infections – and thus more deaths – among older Hoosiers,” Menachemi said.

Some people – who refuse to listen to health experts – have long called for states to lift all restrictions and ignore COVID-19 precautions in order to establish “herd immunity.” But Menachemi said herd immunity would require 70 percent of Hoosiers to be infected.

“An additional 13,000 Hoosiers – and that doesn’t include the Hoosiers currently in nursing homes – would lose their lives,” Menachemi said.

READ MORE: Concerns Over Indiana's COVID-19 Response Haven't Changed, Even After 5,000 Deaths

More than half of Indiana deaths from COVID-19 come from nursing homes.

Contact reporter Brandon at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.