INDIANAPOLIS — More than 20,000 Hoosiers have now died from coronavirus.
The Indiana Department of Health reported Monday that 20,033 people have died with COVID-19 as a cause of death since March 2020.
The updated numbers includes 1,132 deaths so far in January 2022. That's the third most in a month behind January and December of last year.
The state's first death from COVID-19 was recorded on March 16, 2020. Roberta "Birdie" Shelton died at Community East Hospital ten days after the first case of coronavirus was reported in the state. Health officials at the time said Shelton had an underlying health condition, but her death was caused by complications from the virus.
The state officially recorded its 20,000th death from COVID-19 on Jan. 20, 2022, a little over a year after the 10,000th death on Jan. 6, 2021. One year ago, on Jan. 23, 2021, the state had reported 11,228 deaths due to coronavirus.
Historically, Indiana recorded the 500th death from coronavirus on April 14, 2020 and the 1,000th death two weeks later, on April 27.
More than 12.7% of the coronavirus deaths in Indiana have occurred in Marion County, where 2,563 people have died as of Monday, Jan. 24 with COVID-19 listed as a cause of death. More than 1,000 coronavirus deaths have occurred in both Lake (1,523) and Allen (1,027) counties. St. Joseph (761) and Elkhart (634) counties round out the five counties with the most deaths recorded in the state.
In addition to Marion County, three central Indiana counties have recorded more than 500 COVID-19 deaths, including Hamilton (551), Madison (547) and Johnson (527) counties.
When measuring deaths per 100,000 residents in a county, Pulaski County has the highest rate with 607.1 deaths per 100,000 residents, followed by Fayette (528.1) and Randolph (523) counties. Marion County has recorded 265.7 deaths per 100,000 residents, while Hamilton County sits at 163, the second-lowest in the state behind Switzerland County in southeast Indiana.