Health officials on the local and state level are encouraging COVID-19 vaccinations as the supply currently outnumbers the demand for it.
Dr. Kristina Box, the state’s public health commissioner, and Lindsay Weaver, the state’s chief medical officer, provided a medical update Wednesday reporting that 1.8 million Hoosiers are fully vaccinated and more than a third of the eligible population has received a shot. Since December, 4 million doses have been administered.
At the Jackson County Health Department, vaccination appointment numbers are down, while no-shows for appointments are up, Public Health Coordinator Lin Montgomery said.
She said the health department doesn’t have a good reason why appointment numbers are down and that it isn’t a local issue, as many other health departments across the state are reporting the same.
Earlier this month, the health department had to move a mass vaccination clinic from Seymour High School to the health department because demand was much lower than anticipated.
Less than 100 doses were distributed when the health department had 700 ready for the clinic.
People who are scheduled for a vaccine need to get it, she said.
“We certainly don’t want to waste any vaccine because someone didn’t show up,” Montgomery said.
Box said all vaccination clinics in the state are being encouraged to offer walk-in appointments.
Walk-ins for a COVID-19 vaccination could start at the Jackson County Health Department as early as next week, Montgomery said.
The health department wants to get through appointments that are already scheduled, but Montgomery assured the availability of appointments.
“For a while, you could not get an appointment. It would be a couple weeks out,” she said. “Well now, we even have appointments open on the same day. If people go to ourshot.in.gov and check our availability, they may even be able to get in on the same day.”
When walk-ins are welcomed at the health department, Montgomery said to only come during clinic hours and after an attempt at booking an appointment. Vaccine clinic hours at the health department are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursdays.
Schneck Medical Center, another COVID-19 vaccination site in Jackson County, also has availability on its appointment list, and health departments in Jennings, Scott and Bartholomew counties also have open availability.
“They have the situation that we do, and there really is not much reason why people can’t get in,” Montgomery said.
In May, a drive-thru vaccine clinic is planned at the health department with a date to be announced.
Even though there has been a public focus on getting Hoosiers vaccinated in recent months, Montgomery said people should still get a COVID-19 test if they have a runny nose or scratchy throat.
“If you can go in and get a free test that will eliminate COVID (as the reason for symptoms), then you will know that you are dealing with allergies or a cold or the flu or whatever,” she said. “It’s still here. It still can be spread.”
The Indiana State Department of Health announced Thursday that 4,972 Jackson County residents have tested positive for COVID-19, an increase of two from Wednesday’s total.
The positivity rate for Jackson County is at 4.6%, a 1.3% increase from Wednesday’s 3.3%, according to the department’s COVID-19 dashboard.
The rate is determined by a seven-day moving average with a six-day lag to give time to receive comprehensive results. The current positivity rate for the county would be for April 16 to 22.
After an update to the ISDH’s county metrics map Wednesday, Jackson County is still classified as a yellow level threat but is a level 0.5 county.
No new deaths attributed to COVID-19 were reported in Jackson County on Thursday, meaning the county’s death toll remains at 72.
There have been 56,487 COVID tests administered to 18,821 individuals in the county since March 18, 2020, an increase of 162 from Wednesday’s total.
The latest results are as of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. The coronavirus dashboard is updated at noon daily.
Also Thursday, the state’s COVID-19 vaccination dashboard reported 13,754 or 31% of 44,231 Jackson County residents have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 11,113 or 25.1% of county residents have been fully vaccinated.
Since Dec. 14, 2,331,069 Hoosiers have received their first dose, while 1,840,696 are fully vaccinated.
On Thursday, 1,406 additional Hoosiers across the state were diagnosed with COVID-19 through testing at the ISDH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and private laboratories.
This brings the total number of Hoosiers known to have had the novel coronavirus to 718,948 following corrections to the previous day’s total.
The state’s total number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 is 12,913 with 11 new deaths being reported Thursday.
For the state, a total of 9,749,814 tests have been administered, an increase of 38,752 from Wednesday’s total.