A COVID-19 mass vaccination site was held at Gary's Roosevelt High School during April and May
Indiana's COVID-19 public health emergency set to end July 31
Contributed By:The 411 News
Indiana ranks 38th in the country with eligible residents vaccinated
Although Indiana lags in the number of its residents vaccinated against COVID-19, ranking 38th in the country, the state’s public health emergency that began in March 2020 is set to end July 31 according to executive orders issued by Gov. Holcomb Wednesday. The state will continue to support the state’s virus vaccination program.
Progress has been made since the peak of the pandemic – between October 2020 and January 2021. Back then, statewide daily reports of infections hovered between 5,000 and 8,000. On June 28, Indiana counted 182 infections statewide.
Statewide during that peak period, daily deaths from the virus ranged between 50 and 100. Daily deaths reached a high of 125 on December 29. For the month of June 2021, the daily death count from the virus has ranged between zero and 10. June's statewide death count was about 180.
Gov. Holcomb noted in the executive orders that Indiana has fully vaccinated 2.8 million residents, less than half of its 5.7 million residents eligible to take the vaccine. The COVID-19 vaccine is available to ages 12 and up. Today’s infections and hospitalizations are found in people who haven’t been vaccinated.
Executive Order 21-16 is a notification of the state’s extension of the public health emergency for 30 more days and that the public health emergency will end on July 31.
Executive Order 21-17 rolls back all directives in previous orders and outlines a limited number of directives necessary to support the state’s health care system and vaccination program.
The order permits those with temporary health worker licenses to continue practicing in the state of Indiana until September 30th. The state needed temporary health workers as the pandemic spread and overwhelmed the health care system. Health care professionals, whether licensed in-state or not, who within the past 5 years had retired or were no longer actively working in the field of health care were asked to return and support hospital and health care facilities staffs.
The statewide mask mandate ended in April. It is now up to local authorities to set guidelines and precautions, if any.
Story Posted:07/02/2021
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