The chief medical officer at IU Health South Central Region said those who have had their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine need not worry there won’t be a vaccine available when it’s time for their second shot.
Despite national reports of delays getting doses, Dr. Dan Handel says he doesn’t expect any disruption in scheduling the second vaccine shot at Bloomington or Paoli IU Health facilities.
“We are being very intentional about how we schedule our first and second, and we have all the vaccines we need to continue to do those,” he said.
He said during an interview Tuesday he suspects state officials are reluctant to lower the age restriction so they can complete the two-dose process while national supply issues smooth out.
“Right now, the supply and the incoming number of vaccines is fine for our 70 and over crowd. Hopefully, as we get greater supply the state will start lowering that age,” he said.
He said very few people don’t show up for their shots, so there are rarely any doses leftover at the end of the day at IU sites.
More than 16,000 people have been vaccinated since Dec. 21 in Bloomington and Paoli’s IU Health sites, which are scheduled out through the second week of February.
