With a little over a week before a two-day mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Bartholomew County, local health officials are reporting that few people have signed up.
The clinic, which will be held 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 25 and 26 at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fairgrounds Community Building, 750 W. County Road 200S, will offer the one-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which is authorized for anyone age 18 and up.
Officials are prepared to administer 1,000 doses of the vaccine over the course of the two days, but only 90 appointments had been booked as of this week, said Amanda Organist, director of nursing at the Bartholomew County Health Department.
Appointments can be made at ourshot.in.gov.
“We are continuing to advertise the clinics in hopes that more will schedule,” Organist said.
The update from local health officials comes as officials across the country prepare to respond to vaccine hesitancy, as demand has eclipsed supply as the constraining factor to vaccinations in much of the country, The Associated Press reported.
Some places around the country are already finding there’s such little interest in the shots, they need to turn down vaccine shipments, according to wire reports.
Similar trends have been seen in Indiana, state health officials said during a press briefing Wednesday.
“Last week, we saw a roughly 19% decrease in overall doses administered from the previous week,” said Dr. Lindsay Weaver, chief medical officer at the Indiana State Department of Health. “But second dose uptake remains high, with about 92% of people getting their second dose.”
Locally, Columbus Regional Health has projected a drop-off in demand for vaccines this month, though it is unclear how of 12- to 15-year-olds becoming eligible for the Pfizer vaccine will impact demand.
Some potential signs that demand for vaccines is declining have started to emerge locally.
Last week, the number of Bartholomew County residents who received their first COVID-19 shot dropped to 1,085, down from 1,382 the week before and the lowest level since the initial weeks of the vaccine rollout, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
The number of first doses administered further declined during the first part of this week — before the state opened shots up to children age 12 to 15 — with just 259 doses given from Sunday to Wednesday, down from 673 during the same period last week.
Last month, the Jackson County Health Department decided to move a mass vaccination clinic from Seymour High School to the health department’s office because demand was much lower than anticipated, said Lynn Montgomery, the department’s public health coordinator.
“We were prepared to administer 700 doses, but the response was not what we anticipated, and so we ended up doing less than 100,” Montgomery said.
A mass vaccination clinic held around the same time at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fairgrounds fared much better, but still gave out 376 fewer shots than the 1,300 doses that officials had said they were prepared to administer.
Organist said there are no plans to move the upcoming J&J mass vaccination clinics if sign-ups remain low.
“We will continue to be at the fairgrounds location,” she said.
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The Bartholomew County Health Department has said it expects to receive an initial shipment of 60 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine by Sunday.
Currently, it is not clear if the health department will receive a weekly allotment of the vaccine, said Amanda Organist, director of nursing at the Bartholomew County Health Department.
The Bartholomew County Health Department has mainly given out the Moderna vaccine up until this point.
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What: Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccination clinic
When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 25 and 26
Where: Bartholomew County Fairgrounds Community Building, 750 W. County Road 200S
How to make an appointment: Visit ourshot.in.gov to reserve an appointment time
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