Governor Holcomb Extends Stage 4.5, Mask Mandate Through September 25

With this extension, there will be no changes in capacity restrictions for restaurants, bars, or entertainment venues.

(Indianapolis, Ind.) – The Hoosier state will be masking up and staying in Stage 4.5 for 30 more days.

Gov. Holcomb made this announcement yesterday.

Gov. Holcomb has been using data to drive decisions since the state’s first case of COVID-19 in early March and says he will continue to do so. The state continues to monitor and respond to these four guiding principles:

• The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients statewide has decreased for 14 days
• The state retains its surge capacity for critical care beds and ventilators
• The state retains its ability to test all Hoosiers who are COVID-19 symptomatic as well as health care workers, first responders, and frontline employees
• Health officials have systems in place to contact all individuals who test positive for COVID-19 and expand contact tracing

With this extension, there will be no changes in capacity restrictions for restaurants, bars, or entertainment venues.

Governor Holcomb reported that in recent weeks the positivity rate has started to plateau:

• 4.4 percent on June 16
• 6.9 percent on July 1
• 7.4 percent on July 15
• 7.6 percent on July 27 (Mask requirement in effect)
• 7.3 percent on August 17
• 6.6 percent on August 19

"On one hand we're pleased that we've been holding steady, in terms of positivity rate," says Holcomb. "We don't want that to trend up. We'd like to see it to start to trend down even more so."