INDIANAPOLIS — Here are Saturday'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 12 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.
State reports another 15K fully vaccinated, 23 more deaths
The Indiana State Department of Health reported 15,322 additional Hoosiers have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Saturday morning. Indiana has administered 5,255,695 total vaccine shots, with 2,574,136 people now fully vaccinated with either the single shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine or both doses of either of the two shot Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.
ISDH also reported 387 new positive cases of COVID-19 and 20 additional deaths attributed to the virus. Those deaths occurred between May 6 and Friday.
A total of 13,267 deaths have occurred in people who had tested positive for COVID-19, with another 418 probable deaths occurring in people who died with symptoms of the virus but had no positive test on record before their deaths.
A total of 3,520,815 unique individuals have been tested in Indiana, with 746,554 Indiana residents now known to have contracted the novel coronavirus
MCPHD partnering with west side churches for pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinic
The Marion County Public Health Department will host a pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church Saturday from 12 to 4 p.m. in partnership with Ebenezer Baptist Church, New Light Missionary Baptist Church, New Direction Worship Center, and Promise Land Christian Community Church.
The clinic will be held at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church located at 1301 N. Goodlet Ave. on the west side of Indianapolis.
The clinic will offer the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for individuals 18 and older. Walk-ins are welcome, and anyone who receives a vaccine will receive a $10 gift card.
Vaccine sign-up in Marion County aimed at non-English-speaking residents
As of this week, just a third of Marion County residents had their shots, with non-white and non-English-speaking residents especially reluctant to roll up their sleeves. The biggest obstacles? Language barriers and trust, according to Jackie Rodriguez with the Immigrant Welcome Center.
"A lot of our communities have a tendency not to trust government or officials based on their lived experiences," Rodriguez said, and "If the information is not available in their own language, they have a harder time understanding what's going on and what resources are available to them."
The Immigrant Welcome Center is one of the groups helping with a vaccine sign-up hotline set for Saturday.
This latest campaign, heavily promoted on social media, includes 65 volunteers fluent in at least one of nine languages: Arabic, Burmese, English, French, Hakha Chin, Mandarin, Spanish, Swahili and Yoruba.
Volunteers will answer questions about the vaccine, direct callers to the most convenient clinic and stress why non-English speaking residents are among those at highest risk of getting COVID.
The hotline runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 5. The number is (317) 327-2100.
New England's success against COVID-19 could be a model
New England is giving the rest of the country a possible glimpse into the future if more Americans get vaccinated. The six-state region has among the highest vaccination rates in the U.S. and is seeing sustained drops in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Massachusetts officials for the first time declared none of the state’s communities at high risk of COVID-19 transmission. In Rhode Island, coronavirus hospitalizations have hit their lowest levels in months. And in Vermont, there hadn’t been a COVID-19 death in over two weeks until Friday.
Latest US, world numbers
There have been more than 33.34 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States as of 6:00 a.m. ET Saturday, according to Johns Hopkins University. There have been more than 597,000 deaths in the U.S.
Worldwide, there have been more than 172.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases with more than 3.71 million deaths. More than 2 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide.
The actual number of people infected by the virus around the world is believed to be much higher — perhaps 10 times higher in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — given testing limitations and the many mild cases that have gone unreported or unrecognized.
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.
Hawaii sets vaccine thresholds for lifting travel quarantine
Hawaii's governor says the state will drop its quarantine and COVID-19 testing requirements for travelers once 70% of the state’s population has been vaccinated against the disease. Hawaii will also lift its requirement that people wear masks indoors once that level has been reached.
The state Department of Health website says 59% of the population has had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 52% has finished their dosing regimen.
The state is using its vaccination figures to calculate thresholds for lifting restrictions and not those provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hawaii believes its numbers are more accurate.