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MUNCIE, Ind. While vaccine distribution was going strong in Delaware County for months, with local clinics vaccinating hundreds to thousands of patients every week, things have continued to slow down as summer approaches.
According to the Indiana State Department of Health s vaccine dashboard, 38,288 Delaware County residents had been fully vaccinated as of Friday morning, making up roughly 33% of the population.
While local healthcare systems, including IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital, Open Door Health Services and Meridian Health Services, are happy to have administered that many shots, the drop in vaccine demand has some concerned.
Health officials from each clinic told The Star Press that in recent weeks, the pace of vaccine appointments has slowed, especially when it comes to those receiving their first dose.
MUNCIE, Ind. Local numbers of COVID-19 cases are worsening, even if Delaware County s COVID-19 ranking from the state, which is used to track the spread of the virus in local communities, hasn t changed (yet).
The Indiana State Department of Health assigns every county a color each week based on its weekly case total per 100,000 residents and positivity rate. Each of those two categories is given a score and then averaged to determine rank.
Blue is the best rank, for counties with the lowest COVID-19 spread, with the color coding increasing from blue to yellow, orange and then red depending on a community s spread.
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MUNCIE, Ind. Meridian Health Services is looking to bring the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to the Suzanne Gresham Center. Once the supply arrives, it will become the second local clinic to offer the Pfizer vaccine.
Lisa Suttle, Meridian s regional vice president of clinical services, told The Star Press that the healthcare system has ordered the specialized refrigerator to hold the two-dose Pfizer vaccine, which was expected to arrive May 4. We will then begin working on getting the Pfizer vaccine, Suttle said. We wanted to make sure we had the freezer and have all the guidelines in place to keep the Pfizer vaccine safe.