Indiana nears two years since 1st confirmed COVID case

Indianapolis, Indiana – Two years since Indiana discovered it’s first confirmed case of COVID-19. All of our coronavirus metrics are trending down – even vaccine uptake has slowed.

“At the Monroe county level, we had really been watching our cases per 100,000 which this week fell below 50,” said Penny Caudill, Health Administrator for the Monroe County Health Department. “Our positivity rate is now below 5%. So we’re very happy about that.”

More than 3.6 million Hoosiers have been vaccinated. On Friday Monroe County ended its mask mandate which has been in effect since August.

“Our vaccination rate, it continues to increase, but the demand for vaccine has definitely dropped,” said Caudill.

According to Caudill, her county has only seen vaccination rates increase by a small fraction.

“January 10th we had 59% (of the county’s eligible population vaccinated) and we are now at 59.9%,” said Caudill. “So, you know, the past few months have been very slow.”

Public health clinics in Monroe County are also seeing foot traffic decline.

“Our public health clinic had been seeing around 100 people each clinic and they are now down into you know 20 and some days 10,” said Caudill. “So definitely has slowed.”

Just one year ago, vaccine appointments were hard to come by and health departments struggled to get enough doses.

“Certainly, (now), we try not to stockpile right so you kind of order as you need it and we don’t have endless storage capacity either,” said Caudill.

According to a spokesperson for the Marion County Health Department, “MCPHD rotates COVID vaccine inventory like all other vaccines. We don’t have a large surplus of vaccine, but have enough of it available for the forecasted clinics this month.”

According to Caudill, sometimes vaccines do go to waste, and that is inevitable, however, she said it is all about finding the right balance.

“If somebody needs a vaccine, we want them to have it and if that means that a dose is not given to somebody else then that’s the way it is. It’s more important to get those doses out,” said Caudill.