Dr. Lindsey Weaver, Indiana Department of Health chief medical officer, says it is achievable that Indiana hits herd immunity in 2021. (Justin Hicks/IPB News)
Indiana lags behind the national average for COVID-19 vaccines, with just less than 27 percent of the state’s total population fully vaccinated. When pointing to more rural zip codes, health officials said they’re working with the Indiana Rural Health Association to help improve vaccination rates.
State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box said access is only one of the barriers. I believe truly, it has a little bit more to do with vaccine hesitancy than it has to do with the access there. But I always say you can’t say it’s about vaccine hesitancy until you’ve made sure you’ve made the access appropriate, Box said.
Health Officials Outline Future Consequences For Indiana Vaccine Hesitancy wboi.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wboi.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
One positive outcome of the pandemic might be a quick embrace of virtual health care, say local officials. Many of them hope insurance companies and state and federal lawmakers codify
ANOTHER VIEWPOINT: A season of small sacrifices
Terre Haute Tribune Star
The year-end holidays may fully reveal that the coronavirus is a dire small-town dilemma, too.
Last week, America’s highest per-capita coronavirus hospitalization rates were found in South Dakota and, yes, Indiana, The Indianapolis Star reported. Sixty-one of every 100,000 South Dakotans were in a hospital bed with the virus, according to research by the COVID Tracking Project. Fifty of every 100,000 Hoosiers were hospitalized with COVID-19.
The problem was perhaps more problematic in Indiana, because the state has 270 hospital beds for every 100,000 residents, compared to South Dakota’s 480 beds.
Especially vulnerable are rural hospitals, where any quarantine of exposed health-care workers particularly complicates operations. New COVID cases in rural communities are outpacing those in urban areas, the leader of the Indiana Rural Health Association said.