By Mitchell Kirk | Daily Reporter
HANCOCK COUNTY — Work is expected to begin later this week on vaccinating almost 1,000 hospital workers in the county from COVID-19.
Hancock Regional Hospital is expecting to receive 975 doses of the vaccine made by Pfizer on Thursday, Dec. 17, said Tim Livesay, director of pharmacy for the hospital.
UPS and FedEx trucks began rolling out Sunday morning to deliver the vaccine to distribution centers across the country after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized its emergency use late last week. On Monday, the first doses began to be administered around the country.
Livesay said Hancock Regional Hospital’s shipment will arrive by truck in shipping containers packed with dry ice. Pfizer’s vaccine has to be stored at about 94 degrees below zero.
The doses of the vaccine arriving later this week will be for Hancock Regional Hospital employees treating COVID-19 patients, Livesay said. That includes those who work in the emergency department, COVID-19 units and those who administer COVID-19 tests. Livesay added vaccinations will also be given to employees who treat patients in high-risk categories like cancer.
Hospital workers who work in those areas will receive a link to register for receiving the vaccine, Livesay continued. Once they’re registered, they’ll be able to come to the area set up in the hospital for administering the shots.
If the hospital fills all its slots, it should go through its first 975-dose vaccine shipment in five days, Livesay said. He hopes it will. There’s a lot of interest among hospital employees, he said, but he also noted the skepticism toward the vaccine, including within the health-care community.
Pfizer’s vaccine requires two doses 21 days apart. Livesay said future shipments to the hospital are planned to follow to ensure workers who get a first dose also get a second.
“It’s one of those situations that you really wish you didn’t have to be involved in; but on a professional level, it’s probably one of those once-in-a-lifetime events that hopefully you can make a difference in people’s lives and in the safety of the community,” Livesay said.
Long-term care facilities have also been identified as a priority for the COVID-19 vaccine. Andrew Clark, executive director of Greenfield Healthcare Center, said he and his colleagues will be on conference calls this week to learn about how the vaccine will be administered at his and other facilities. Shots could start going into arms at Greenfield Healthcare Center as soon as next week, he added.
“We’ll learn more about it this week,” Clark said.
Hancock County added 286 COVID-19 cases and two deaths over the weekend, raising its totals to 4,116 and 73, respectively, according to the Indiana State Department of Health’s reporting on Monday. Another 575 COVID-19 tests raised the county’s total to 54,752. The county’s seven-day positivity rate for all tests between Dec. 1 and 7 is 13.5%, while the cumulative rate is 7.2%. The seven-day positivity rate for the same time period for unique individuals is 24.6%, with a cumulative rate of 13.6%.
Hancock Regional Hospital reported Monday that it was treating 14 COVID-19 patients.
The state health department also updated data Monday on COVID-19 cases among students, teachers and staff in schools through Dec. 11. All of Hancock County’s public schools reported new cases and all but three reported new student cases.
Golden LivingCenter-Brandywine, a Greenfield nursing home that had been experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak, reported as of last Friday that none of its 83 residents were COVID-19 positive. Three employees had the virus, one of whom tested positive in the previous 24 hours. A total of 93 of its residents have tested positive for the novel coronavirus throughout the pandemic, 74 have recovered and, 19 have died.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
