At the current rate, it would take about 44 weeks for 70% of Johnson County residents to receive their first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, which is what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says is needed to reach herd immunity.
Slowly but surely, local and state health officials are getting vaccines into as many arms as possible.
About 2,275 vaccines are now given each week at vaccination sites throughout the county, and more than 13,000 have already received their first doses of the life-saving vaccine.
Before last week, about 1,000 vaccines were given each week at the Johnson County Health Department’s clinic at Johnson Memorial Hospital, which was the only location authorized to give vaccines.
Last week, efforts expanded. Vaccinations began at Kroger stores in Franklin, Bargersville and Greenwood, the Windrose Health Clinic in Edinburgh, the Greenwood Walmart Pharmacy on Emerson Avenue, and Adult and Child Health’s Northwood Plaza Primary Care Center in Franklin. Meijer announced its stores will also begin vaccinations soon.
The county health department asked to expand its capacity and provide several more shots per hour, said Betsy Swearingen, director of the Johnson County Health Department.
Right now, the clinic gives between 20 and 40 shots per hour, Swearingen said.
The new capacity could be up to 10 shots per 10 minutes, compared to the current 4 to 8. But the exact number of new daily appointments is still to be determined, she said
All local Kroger stores in Johnson County have the ability to vaccinate up to 20 people per day, or about 100 per week, said Eric Halvorson, a Kroger spokesperson. Kroger stores in Franklin, Greenwood and Bargersville are all offering the vaccine. The vaccine is not yet available at the Claybrook Commons Kroger just north of CountyLine Road as Marion County Kroger stores don’t yet have vaccine doses.
Adult and Child has the capacity to give 75 shots per day at its Franklin location in Northwood Plaza, and also offers shots at two Indianapolis clinics on the southside, said Jenni Crago, a spokesperson for Adult and Child.
Windrose can provide up to 50 vaccines per day at its Edinburgh clinic, but hopes to expand to more locations when possible, said Scott Rollett, Windrose CEO.
The Greenwood Walmart store is giving the number of vaccines allotted by the state, but a spokesperson for the company would not provide an specific number.
All vaccination sites are subject to the same rules, state health officials say. Shots must be offered by appointment only to eligible first responders, health care workers and Hoosiers 70 and older. Shots must also be free, but some sites may collect insurance information.
Local capacities could expand further. Gov. Eric Holcomb said Wednesday the state could get 16% more vaccines — or 13,000 more doses — per week. Right now, the state gets about 90,000 per week.
The only thing holding back faster rollout on both the local and state levels is vaccine availability, officials said.
“The limitation on vaccine doses right now limits us from doing more,” Swearingen said. “I understand that those limitations should be lifted soon and we should be able to get more vaccines to the people.”
Once more shots become available, state officials plan to expand eligibility to Hoosiers 65 to 69. This could come as soon as this week, said Dr. Lindsay Weaver, state medical examiner.
More than 1 million Hoosiers have registered for a vaccine appointment since the start of vaccinations and more than 931,000 vaccines have been distributed to the state, according to state and CDC statistics.
As of Sunday, more than 551,000 Hoosiers had received the vaccine, and more than 137,800 were fully vaccinated with both shots, according to the state’s vaccine dashboard.
The CDC ranks Indiana 23rd for timely vaccine distribution among all states and U.S. territories, because there are about 9,000 per 100,000 shots in arms, compared to the 13,800 per 100,000 the state has received.
State officials say the vaccine is going out as quickly as possible, and Weaver noted that even if vaccines are not in arms yet, there is an appointment attached to nearly every dose the state has received.
Data shows the most at-risk Hoosiers are taking the vaccine at encouraging rates, said Dr. Kristina Box, state health commissioner. So far, 51% of Hoosiers 80 and older have received a shot, and 57% of Hoosiers 70 and older, state data shows.
About 60% of the state’s health care workers and first responders have also received a shot, state data shows. Locally, about 70% of Johnson Memorial Health employees have received a vaccine, said Dr. David Dunkle, the hospital’s president and CEO.
In Johnson County, more than 13,800 are vaccinated with at least one shot, the state dashboard shows. Data is not available for how many residents are fully vaccinated or how many of the eligible populations have been vaccinated.
So far, about 8.8% of Hoosiers and 8.7% of Johnson County residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, state data shows.
Local health officials remain positive, despite setbacks they have encountered with supply.
Even if fewer vaccines than anticipated are going into arms, no appointments have been canceled locally, and distribution setbacks have been corrected quickly, Dunkle said.
“Though we would like to be better, it isn’t that bad when you think about it. We are trending in the right direction,” Dunkle said. “We are getting thousands of people vaccinated. That’s what you have to look at.”
The partnership between the health department and hospital has helped, Swearingen said. By working together, the vaccine clinic has run much more smoothly than either could have accomplished independently, she said.
Though the slower-than-expected vaccine rollout has vexed both local and state officials all over the country, more vaccines may be available from at least one more manufacturer soon.
On Friday, Johnson & Johnson released results of its third-phase vaccine trial which showed the one-dose vaccine is 72% effective at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19 infection among study participants in the United States.
With this stage of the study complete, the next step for Johnson & Johnson would be to apply for an emergency-use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which the company said earlier this month could come sometime in February.
