Vaccine efforts in Indiana

Vaccine efforts in Indiana

Able to be vaccinated.

Good evening and thanks for joining us.

I'm patrece dayton.

There "is" progress being made to vaccinate people in both indiana and illinois.

We'll have updates from both states in just a moment... but first... we want to update you on where our indiana counties stand.

"parke county" remains in the "red" this week.

They are now joined by "vermillion" and "clay."

Vigo county remains in the orange.

As we've explained, each color is based on cases and positivity rates.

"red" is the worst ranking, followed by orange.

Health officals want hooisers to remain alert.

News 10's dominic miranda joins us now in our newsroom he has an update with where indiana stands on its vaccine efforts.

Patrece..

Both indiana state health commissioner dr. kristina box and chief medical officer dr. lindsay weaver say there is reason for hope in indiana.

Thousands of hoosiers have received the first dose of the vaccine.

Here's how it breaks down.

Dr. weaver says as of data pulled on tuesday... nearly 76 thousand hoosiers have already received their first dose of the vaccine.

More than 110 thousand hoosiers in total have scheduled appointments for the vaccine through next monday... and those numbers continue to grow.

Those numbers do not include the nearly 40 thousand doses that are set aside for long term care facility residents and staff.

It was announced that a vaccine dashboard will be launced that will show the number of vaccines administered.

That will be on the state's vaccine website and will be updated each wednesday.

"by the end of this week, indiana will have been allocated 146 thousand 2 hundred and 50 doses of pfizer's vaccine and 152 thousand 500 doses of moderna vaccine.

That represents nearly 250 thousand health care hoosiers who can receive their first doses of vaccine to protect them from covid-19."

Dr. weaver says weekly allocations of the vaccine will be lower going forward.

This includes lower vaccinations occuring over christmas and again for the new year.

But officals say vaccines will be picking up once we get past the holidays.

"we continue to focus our vaccination efforts on our frontline health care workers because they are at the greatest risk of exposure and as i mentioned cvs and walgreens are have started their vaccination efforts in long term care facilities this week."

Dr weaver stressed that the state is moving in a very intentional order of vaccine distribution.

This is to ensure they have enough vaccines before opening up vaccines to additional groups.

She says to date... no vaccine has gone to waste or expired.

Reporting live in the newsroom i'm dominic miranda