Stay away from Indy Metro

[wh]

The highest coronavirus rates in Indiana are in 4 contiguous counties: Marion, Hamilton, Hendricks and Johnson.  Moreover, they are many times higher than anywhere else in Indiana, including Lake, Porter and LaPorte.

Cases/100K people
51.3 Marion
27.6 Johnson
17.5 Hendricks
16.5 Hamilton
38.5 Weighted Avg.

9.7 Lake
3.6 Porter
1.8 LaPorte
7.2 Weighted Avg.

7.1 All Counties except Marion, Hamilton, Hendricks and Johnson

So, here we are sitting in lockdown in NWI, our economy completely destroyed, with no end in sight, thanks to a state-wide order, apparently because a bunch of people 150 miles away don't have enough sense (or self discipline) to come in out of the rain. And, please spare me the "population density" argument.  Lake County has the 2nd highest population in the state behind Marion, they're adjacent to the ciity of Chicago, a much larger metroplex than Indy, and thousands of Lake County residents commute to and from Chicago to work every day.  Yet, Lake County's coronavirus incident rate is many times less than any of the aforementioned Indy Counties. This is why President Trump is wisely calling for a phased return to normal around Easter time.  It was probably good that the entire country shut down when it did, but we can't continue on with a nationwide shutdown indefinitely.  At some point it's going to be up to these major metropolitan areas to fix themselves, and the rest of us get on with our lives the best we can.  If not, this economy is going to tank to the point where it will never come back.   

[vu84v2]

I certainly agree with your sentiment, but I do think opening up parts of the country with low incident rates could be problematic. I'll use your example of Lake County. So if Lake County opens up because the incident rates are low, what stops people from Chicago who have no idea that they have the virus from going to Indiana? One would hope that people in Chicago would not create risk by traveling, but there are enough foolish people that this is a concern. There is potentially some evidence of this happening out east, where maps with reported positive tests show incident rates increasing down interstates (this evidence may not be conclusive). There were definitely instances of people traveling from high risk areas to second/vacation homes in low incident areas.

[FWalum]

The highest coronavirus rates in Indiana are in 4 contiguous counties: Marion, Hamilton, Hendricks and Johnson.  Moreover, they are many times higher than anywhere else in Indiana, including Lake, Porter and LaPorte.

Cases/100K people
51.3 Marion
27.6 Johnson
17.5 Hendricks
16.5 Hamilton
38.5 Weighted Avg.

9.7 Lake
3.6 Porter
1.8 LaPorte
7.2 Weighted Avg.

7.1 All Counties except Marion, Hamilton, Hendricks and Johnson

So, here we are sitting in lockdown in NWI, our economy completely destroyed, with no end in sight, thanks to a state-wide order, apparently because a bunch of people 150 miles away don't have enough sense (or self discipline) to come in out of the rain. And, please spare me the "population density" argument.  Lake County has the 2nd highest population in the state behind Marion, they're adjacent to the ciity of Chicago, a much larger metroplex than Indy, and thousands of Lake County residents commute to and from Chicago to work every day.  Yet, Lake County's coronavirus incident rate is many times less than any of the aforementioned Indy Counties. This is why President Trump is wisely calling for a phased return to normal around Easter time.  It was probably good that the entire country shut down when it did, but we can't continue on with a nationwide shutdown indefinitely.  At some point it's going to be up to these major metropolitan areas to fix themselves, and the rest of us get on with our lives the best we can.  If not, this economy is going to tank to the point where it will never come back.   

This post is only 5 days old and things have changed dramatically in that short period of time. Lake County's numbers have quadrupled and some of our smallest counties have been hit the hardest.
County          Pop          Cases          Cases/100K    Rank
Decatur         26552      48               180.78            1
Franklin         22842      39               170.74            2
Marion         944523     1117            118.26            3
Ripley            28425     33               116.09            4
Johnson       151564     118               77.85            6
Hamilton      316095     179               56.63            9
Hendricks     160940       91              56.54            10
Lake            486849     180               36.97           16
Madison       129505       46               35.52           17
Allen            370016       39               10.54

If any places should be complaining right now it is the Northeast and the Southwest areas of the state. Amazing that the rural counties of Decatur and Franklin have been so hard hit. Must be from people traveling the route between Cincinnati and Indy.

[vu84v2]

A sizable panel of the very top economists almost all agree (many strongly) that abandoning severe lockdowns at a time when the likelihood of a resurgence in infections remains high will lead to greater total economic damage than sustaining the lockdowns to eliminate the resurgence risk. Let's hope that government leaders also listen to the economic experts.

http://www.igmchicago.org/surveys/policy-for-the-covid-19-crisis/