COLUMBUS, Ind. — Columbus Regional Health anticipates its weekly allotment of COVID-19 vaccines will hold steady for “the foreseeable future” as local officials seek and wait for more vaccines from state officials, who say they are awaiting more shipments from the federal government.
Currently, CRH is receiving about 1,200 to 1,500 doses of COVID-19 vaccines per week and, as of Thursday, had administered 7,482 vaccines at a clinic it is operating near the hospital campus in Columbus, said CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue.
The Bartholomew County Health Department is now expecting a weekly allotment of 600 vaccines, up 100 from what they were receiving last week, said Amanda Organist, the department’s director of nursing.
The health department will offer appointments on Sundays starting in February, Organist said.
“This week we have given 274. We still have a clinic today and were closed on Monday,” Organist said.
As of Friday morning, at least 4,394 Bartholomew County residents, or about 5.2% of the county’s population, had received their initial COVID-19 shot, up from 3,131, or 3.7% of the population, the previous Friday, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
About 1,280 people, or 1.5% of the county’s population, had received their second shot and were considered to be fully vaccinated as of Friday morning, up from 609 the Friday before.
“We have reached out to (state health officials) to ask them if we could increase our allotment and increase our appointments, and we’ve been told to just kind of stay where we are,” DeClue said.
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
