The Boone County Health Dept. has created a will call list for Indiana resident 50 and older and for patient-facing health care workers, first responders and residents with certain comorbidities to receive COVID-19 vaccinations if remaining daily supplies allow.
BCHD Public Health Educator Claire Haughton said the list is prioritized by eligibility, age, distance to the Boone County 4-H Fairgrounds vaccination clinic, comorbidity status and other considerations.
“Basically, if we know we are going to have a certain amount of vials or even doses that we need to use at the end of the night, we turn to the will call list,” Haughton said.
The purpose of the list is to avoid wasting vaccine doses, according to the BCHD. If remaining doses are available, a BCHD official will contact the next person on the list to ask if they are available for an immediate appointment. The department is not accepting walk-ins.
Indiana residents who want to be added to the list can contact Haughton at [email protected].
Haughton said the BCHD received approximately 1,300 weekly vaccine allotments in February the state government through February. She said the weekly allotments are not expected to increase this month. But she said BCHD officials are confident Johnson & Johnson’s recently FDA-approved vaccine will increase allotments soon.
BCHD officials don’t know when or if shipments of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will arrive at the department’s vaccination clinic at the Boone County 4-H Fairgrounds. Haughton said the department would likely know more when state officials receive first allotments from the federal government of the new vaccine.
Haughton said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could provide those who are afraid of needles and medical settings a chance to receive a one-shot vaccine. Vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech require two shots and are given at least 28 and 21 days apart, respectively.
“We do know it’s really, really effective at preventing serious COVID infection and also hospitalization and death, which is definitely one of our priority areas,” Haughton said of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
