In the past two weeks, the state’s age rollout for vaccinations opened up from those over the age of 80 to those from ages 70 to 79, but other age rollouts are currently on hold.
To date, the state has received 736,000 doses of vaccine for both first and second doses, but it does not include an allocation of 112,000 for long-term care facilities. More than 270,000 appointments are scheduled between now and the end of January with 286,000 available vaccines. Appointments are being scheduled into February.
During Governor Eric Holcomb’s press briefing Thursday afternoon, Indiana Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lindsay Weaver explained the reason why additional age groups are not currently eligible to get a vaccine.
“Essentially, we’re running very close to one-to-one in terms of doses and appointments which is why we cannot expand further at this time,” stated Dr. Weaver. “We are aware of the over two million Hoosiers who as a requirement of their job must interact with the public and potentially be exposed everyday. At this time, we must continue to concentrate on vaccinating those people who are at the highest risk of hospitalizations and death. I assure you we will expand eligibility as quickly as we can when we receive more vaccine.”
Dr. Weaver said the state gets about 78,000 to 80,000 doses a week.
State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box said when the vaccine eligibility is expanded, the next age group will be 65 to 69.
Dr. Box stated, “This represents about 350,000 people. We don’t have an estimated date for when this eligibility will open, and you cannot make appointments at this time in that age group. When we first announced our age-based approach, we had said the next eligible group would be Hoosiers 60 to 69. This is small change in that we are breaking that category down and will start with a smaller group of Hoosiers because of the amount of the vaccine that we’re receiving.”
Dr. Weaver said the state is working to educate residents about the vaccine.
“We know that there is significant vaccine hesitancy in some of our communities of color. We are working with stakeholders around the state to share appropriate education and messaging to build awareness and trust in the vaccine. We also continue to work to make information available in other languages on ourshot.in.gov and you will start to see Hoosiers from all backgrounds and regions of the state sharing their reasons for getting the vaccine as part of our public awareness campaign.”
More than 362,000 Hoosiers have received the first dose of the vaccine while 88,000 people are fully vaccinated.
