HENDRICKS COUNTY, Ind. — The coronavirus continues to spread through Indiana, although a little slower.
According to the Indiana State Department of Health Wednesday, the virus has claimed another 36 lives — a little over 9,700 confirmed COVID-19 deaths in total. When suspected cases are added in, the death toll tops 10,000.
The pandemic has gone on so long that for many people the numbers are just that — numbers and not lives.
ISDH reported almost 1,500 more positive cases Wednesday than the day before, putting the state at well over 600,000 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.
Nearly 3 million have been tested for COVID-19. Wednesday was just another day of awful and awfully mind-numbing numbers.
Sarah Lane admitted feeling immune to them.
"You know it is onto so much it's just blasé," she said.
The state has lost more than 10,000 souls between confirmed and probably COVID-19 deaths. Let's try to put it in perspective.
The cavernous Hinkle Fieldhouse has only 9,100 seats. It's not big enough to hold all the Hoosiers killed by COVID-19.
Those 10,091 people would fill about 60 large commercial passenger jets.
From a public health point of view, according to ISDH records, 132 people died in the 2019-2020 flu season. COVID-19 has claimed 76 times more lives.
The town of Danville has a population of 9,923, according to the Census Bureau. COVID has killed more people than all the people living in the Hendricks County community.
Until now, Sarah Ferguson had never done the math.
"It's horrific. It's horrific," she said.
COVID by the numbers, taking a terrible toll.