INDIANAPOLIS — Here are Thursday's latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic, including the latest news on COVID-19 vaccinations and testing in Indiana.
Registrations for the vaccine are now open for Hoosiers 5 and older through the Indiana State Department of Health. This story will be updated over the course of the day with more news on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pfizer, U.S. ink $5.29B deal over COVID-19 treatment pill
The U.S. government will pay drugmaker Pfizer $5.29 billion for 10 million treatment courses of its potential COVID-19 treatment if regulators approve it.
Pfizer asked the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to authorize the experimental pill, which has been shown to significantly cut the rate of hospitalizations and deaths among people with coronavirus infections.
The price for Pfizer’s potential treatment amounts to about $529 per course. The U.S. has already agreed to pay roughly $700 per course of Merck’s drug for about 3.1 million treatments.
Pfizer said Thursday the price being paid by the U.S. government reflects the high number of treatment courses purchased through 2022.
Pfizer reported earlier this month that its pill cut hospitalizations and deaths by 89% among high-risk adults who had early symptoms of COVID-19. The company studied its pill in people who were unvaccinated and faced the worst risks from the virus due to age or health problems, such as obesity.
State reports nearly 4K new cases, 29 deaths
The Indiana State Department of Health reported that another 2,912 Indiana residents were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Thursday morning. The total number of Hoosiers now considered fully vaccinated is 3,408,432.
A total of 633,589 booster doses have now been administered to Indiana residents. Nearly 21,000 new booster doses were reported in Thursday’s count.
ISDH also reported that 3,939 more Hoosiers tested positive for COVID-19 as of midnight, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 1,065,717.
The state also added 29 deaths from COVID-19 that occurred between Nov. 12 and Wednesday. The overall death toll has climbed to 16,647. Another 573 people in Indiana have died with COVID-19 symptoms, but with no positive test on record, the state considers their COVID-19 deaths “probable.”
Disney Cruise Lines to require passengers 5 and up to be fully vaccinated
Beginning Jan. 13, Disney Cruise Line will require passengers as young as 5 years old on its ships to be fully vaccinated in order to sail.
The update to the cruise line's COVID-19 vaccination policy comes more than two weeks after a kid-size dose of Pfizer's vaccine was cleared by the FDA for kids ages 5 to 11.
According to Disney's website, the vaccination requirement applies to both U.S. and international passengers on its ships. Under the parameters, guests will need to wait to book their trip until 14 days after the last person in their party has been vaccinated.
In the meantime, kids 5 to 11 years old can complete negative COVID-19 testing requirements in lieu of being fully vaccinated. The option will remain available to kids in this age group until Jan. 12.
All those younger than 5 will still need to continue to comply with Disney Cruise Line's negative COVID-19 testing protocol.
Latest US, world numbers
There have been more than 47.42 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States as of 3:30 a.m. Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University. There have been more than 767,400 deaths recorded in the U.S.
Worldwide, there have been more than 255.03 million confirmed coronavirus cases with more than 5.12 million deaths and more than 7.56 billion vaccine doses administered worldwide.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness like pneumonia, or death.
White House: 10% of kids aged 5-11 have been vaccinated in 1st 2 weeks
The White House says about 10% of eligible kids aged 5 to 11 have received a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine since its approval for their age group two weeks ago.
At least 2.6 million kids have received a shot, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said Wednesday, with 1.7 million doses administered in the last week alone, roughly double the pace of the first week after approval. It's more than three times faster than the rate adults were vaccinated at the start of the nation's vaccination campaign 11 months ago.
Zients said there are now 30,000 locations across the U.S. for kids to get a shot, up from 20,000 last week, and that the administration expects the pace of pediatric shots to pick up in the coming days.
Kids who get their first vaccine dose by the end of this week will be fully vaccinated by Christmas, assuming they get their second shot three weeks after the first one.
3-in-10 parents say they won't get young kids vaccinated
A new study from the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) is giving insight into who makes up the remaining holdouts from getting a COVID-19 vaccine, where parents are at when it comes to a decision on vaccinating children and whether people are planning to attend holiday gatherings this year.
Parents are somewhat evenly divided on whether they will get their children ages 5-11 vaccinated: 27% say they will "right away"; 33% say they will "wait and see"; 30% say "definitely not"; and 5% say they will only if they are required to.
Fifty-one percent of parents in households that make less than $50,000 said they were "very" or "somewhat" concerned they will have to take time off work to get their child vaccinated or if the child experiences side effects. For households with incomes over $50,000, that number dropped to 23%. Additionally, 45% of lower-income parents said they were concerned about out-of-pocket costs for the vaccine vs. 11% of higher-income parents.
For kids 12-17, 50% of parents say the child is already vaccinated or they are going to get the vaccine "right away". Eleven percent are "wait and see" and 36% say "only if required" or "definitely not."
Twenty percent of adults said they won't get the vaccine or will do so only if required, according to the survey. Nearly three-quarters of adults have gotten the vaccine. The rest said "as soon as possible" or they will "wait and see."
The three demographic groups KFF found in which the most people said they will "definitely not" get the vaccine were rural residents (33%), Republicans (31%) and White Evangelical Christians (25%). The demographic groups with the most "already received at least one dose" responses were Democrats (90%), people 65 and older (86%) and college graduates (83%).