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INDIANAPOLIS — The Circle City could be an “emerging hot spot” for the coronavirus, said the nation’s top doctor.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams posted the statement on Twitter saying in part, “We must now focus on flattening the curve and raising the bar in emerging hot spots like New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit, LA, Miami, and Indianapolis.”

“Raising the bar means increasing capacity to respond,” Adams added on Twitter. “That happens by obtaining new resources and redistributing/ reallocating/ repurposing local resources. Must happen at federal, state, and local level, & can also be tracked.”

According to the Indiana State Health Department, nearly 8,500 Hoosiers have been tested for coronavirus. As of Sunday, 1,514 Hoosiers have tested positive for the coronavirus.

“Those of us who have been kind of in the thick of this for the last three weeks doesn’t come as a big surprise,” said Dr. Christopher Doehring, vice president of medical affairs at Franciscan Health Network. “That statement by the surgeon general is just confirmation of what we have already known and been dealing with.”

It’s now been four weeks since the state confirmed its first case of the coronavirus. Doehring tells WISH-TV we are probably still a couple of weeks away from when the virus will hit its peak in Indiana. Doehring says the current models project the pandemic to span over a 12-week period.

Gov. Eric Holcomb ordered Hoosiers to hunker down last week with a two-week shelter-in-place order as state health officials continue to provide daily updates on COVID-19 cases in the state.

Doehring said at this point he feels both the state and federal governments have done all they can to encourage you to socially distance and be mindful of spreading the virus.