INDIANAPOLIS — Some Indiana hospitals are at or near capacity as they prepare for the work of vaccinating frontline health care workers.
That could start as soon as next week. Exactly nine months ago, the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Indiana.
Since then there's been more than 387,000 cases and nearly 6,000 Hoosiers killed by the virus.
Hospitals are locked in an unrelenting struggle with a virus that is now killing more people than any other time in the pandemic.
"It is fundamentally different now than it was in the spring. Far, far worse," Steve Long, the president and CEO Hancock Health said. "It is just constant. There is no let up. There is no release of pressure. That won't come until the pandemic is over."
Pandemic fatigue, a false feeling that face masks and social distancing are no longer needed to slow the pandemic, may be one reason the crisis is getting worse.
"I think we mistook hope for reality," Long explained. "The hope is real. The vaccine is coming and it will bet better but it is going to take time."
Meanwhile, the number of deaths across the state has increased by six times since July.
In Indiana, the daily number of new cases skyrocketed in November and is showing no sign of letting up in December.
The Greenfield hospital is now at or near capacity. A stand-by COVID unit opened over the weekend.
"We have a little bit of flexibility left but we are reaching, we are reaching the end," Long said. "Reaching the end as in we will be at capacity and not be able to fit anyone else in."
Vaccines are on the way. Frontline health care workers may receive the first doses as soon as next week.
It could be several months before they are available to the general public. Until then, many health care providers fear the crisis will get even worse.