Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box announced Wednesday that a COVID-19 vaccine will arrive in November for healthcare providers.
During Governor Eric Holcomb’s weekly press conference on Wednesday, Dr. Box said the federal vaccine coordinators have alerted the Indiana Department of Health that the first round of vaccines will arrive in late-November and the second round will be in mid-December.
“We do not know how much Indiana will receive yet, but we expect the supply to be limited in the beginning,” said Dr. Box. “The vaccine plan that we submitted to the CDC calls for initial doses to go to healthcare providers and other vulnerable populations. We have a team of internal and external partners that continues to work on our allocation plan to ensure that we are able to move the vaccine quickly once it arrives.”
Dr. Box commented that a team will review the data to determine the populations in which the vaccine was tested.
Dr. Box believes that the first round of vaccines will come from Pfizer and the second round will be from Moderna. Dr. Box said the Department of Health will look for emergency use authorization documentation for the FDA once it is available.
She said it is a vaccine that all people will be able to have, but it will be a few months before it is widely available. Until then, she encourages the continuation of practices to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Dr. Box stated, “Keep wearing your mask, washing your hands, and practicing social distancing. They’re the best tools that we have right now and we need to use every tool that we have to get our cases back under control.”
