The Bartholomew County Health Department will have two mass COVID-19 vaccination clinics with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine in Columbus next month.
The clinics will be 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 25 and 26 at the Bartholomew County Fairgrounds Community Building, 750 W. County Road 200S, said Amanda Organist, director of nursing at the Bartholomew County Health Department.
Organist said she anticipates having 1,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine available over the two days.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is only authorized for use in people age 18 and up. Vaccination appointments for the mass vaccination clinic, as well as other sites in the county, can be made on the state’s online registration portal, ourshot.in.gov.
The announcement comes almost a week after federal health officials lifted an 11-day pause on vaccination using the J&J vaccine, The Associated Press reported. During the pause, scientific advisers decided the vaccine’s benefits outweigh a rare risk of blood clots.
It also comes as the number of Bartholomew County residents who have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine approaches 40%.
As of Tuesday morning, a total of 31,963 Bartholomew County residents had received at least one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or 38% of the county’s total population, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
Additionally, 22,797 Bartholomew County residents were fully vaccinated as of Tuesday morning, 27% of the population. That includes 1,053 local residents who had received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Next month’s mass clinic will be the second in Bartholomew County in less than a month.
On April 10, the Bartholomew County Health Department vaccinated 924 people with the Moderna vaccine at a mass clinic at the fairgrounds.
