HOWARD COUNTY, Ind. — Indiana hit a big milestone Wednesday. More than half a million Hoosiers have now received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Meanwhile, more than 122,000 Hoosiers have gotten their second dose and are fully vaccinated. While the numbers are encouraging, the state has a long way to go. There are 5.3 million Hoosiers eligible to receive the vaccinations.
Howard County wants to be ready for when larger quantities of the vaccine are available. It opened a new, bigger vaccination clinic that has room to grow into a mass vaccinate site.
The clinic is administering nearly 1,000 shots per week — a huge relief for people waiting for weeks to receive the potentially life-saving vaccination.
"Sometimes, things like this can be a little bit of a cluster," said Cindy Grimme after she got her shot. "They seem to have it down to a science."
The clinic runs only three days a week. It could be open more days and vaccinate a lot more people if there were more vaccines available.
"At this point we are very very grateful to have a vaccine at all," said Howard County Public Health Officer Dr. Emily Backer. "This has been a tremendous undertaking."
The county's allotment has increased from 300 to 500 to 900, and they've been promised 1,100 doses next week.
Public health officials created a larger, expandable clinic because they anticipate much larger shipments of vaccine and want to be prepared to thousands of doses every week.
"My hope is to ramp up, so more and more people are able to get the vaccines" Backer said.
The vaccine is free. But there is the cost of renting the facility and paying the staff. The state sent an $80,000 grant to help keep the clinic up and running. Howard County Commissioner Paul Wyman insists money isn't an obstacle
"I can't tell you how much above that 80 we will go," Wyman said. "We are hoping to get it done with those dollars. If not, we will be prepared to spend what we need to."
But for now, the vaccines that Howard County and other communities want and need most, money can't buy.