IU Health could begin getting shipments of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine as soon as this weekend, according to South Central Region President Brian Shockney.
“Our expectation is that any moment today, the FDA will issue an approval,” Shockney said during IU Health’s weekly coronavirus Zoom session. “Today is the magic day for Moderna, hopefully, and as you know one of the places it is being manufactured is right here in Bloomington.”
Fifteen front-line healthcare workers received Monroe County’s first COVID-19 inoculations this morning.
“This was a practice run for us today,” Shockney said. “And then, starting Monday, we will be vaccinating up to 350 people per day in our Bloomington site and over 150 per day at our Paoli site.”
Community leaders on the call urged Hoosiers to keep their guards up going into the week of Christmas. Mayor John Hamilton said he would not be getting together with family over the holiday and encouraged others not to gather with those outside their immediate households.
“Remember when you share air with somebody, you're really at risk of spreading or catching this disease which can kill and hurt us dramatically,” Hamilton said.
IU Health’s south central region reached a new peak for admissions over the past week.
“As we've expanded our bed capacity, today, our ICU beds are at 75 percent occupancy in the South Central region and we see that, statewide, they're at 80 percent,” Shockney said. “So we still have people who are very sick.”
When it comes to rolling out vaccines to the general public, Monroe County Health Administrator Penny Caudill said the situation is fluid and she does not have a definite answer. She called for volunteers to help staff the county’s Medical Reserve Corps.
“As we start doing our public clinics, we will need volunteers to help us, especially with our drive-thru clinics and those large clinics that we expect to do later this spring,” Caudill said.
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