More than half of Bartholomew County residents have now received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, though the county still trails the overall national vaccination rate.
As of 5 a.m. Thursday, at least 42,012 Bartholomew County residents had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, including those who had received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
That is just over half of the county’s estimated 83,779 residents, though Bartholomew County is trailing national vaccination rates. As of 6 a.m. Thursday morning, 57% of the total U.S. population had received at least one dose, according to federal records.
Overall, 39,860 Bartholomew County residents were fully vaccinated as of Thursday morning, or about 47.6% of the county’s total population and 56.5% of eligible residents.
However, most infectious disease have estimated that at least 70% to 80%, perhaps more, of the total population will need to be fully vaccinated to reach herd immunity — the threshold experts believe is needed to stop uncontrolled spread of COVID-19.
“I wish we could have reached this milestone earlier,” said Amanda Organist, director of nursing at the Bartholomew County Health Department. “Each day that more people are vaccinated helps us reach the goal of ending this pandemic.”
Additionally, the number of vaccine doses administered to Bartholomew County residents slightly increased last week, with 749 total doses administered, up from 643 the week before and 706 two weeks prior, state records show.
Organist said concerns about the spread of the highly contagious delta variant may have encouraged some people who were previously on the fence about the shots to get vaccinated.
“I think the variant does play into it,” Organist said. “Also, some have mentioned that their employer is offering an incentive to receive the vaccine, or they are wanting to get it for school.”
The vaccination milestone came as Bartholomew County crossed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s threshold for “substantial” transmission of COVID-19, potentially making the county subject to updated CDC guidance on masking, federal records show.
In a news briefing Tuesday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said fully vaccinated people in areas of the country with “substantial and high transmission” should wear masks in public indoor settings.
Walensky defined substantial transmission as any place that records 50 to 100 cases per 100,000 people over the previous seven days. Places with more than 100 cases per 100,000 over a seven-day period are classified as having high transmission.
Walensky said the CDC tracks COVID-19 transmission by county using that set of criteria and publishes the data online.
As of press time Thursday, Bartholomew County was listed as having 53.71 cases per 100,000 residents, according to CDC records.
At least six children in Bartholomew County tested positive for COVID-19 from Sunday to Wednesday, including one child age 1 to 4 years, according to state records.
Bartholomew County residents younger than 40 made up roughly two-thirds of confirmed cases in the county over that same time period.
