Indiana will open COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to teachers and other support staff Monday following guidelines from the White House, according to Indiana State Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lindsay Weaver in Gov. Eric Holcomb’s weekly COVID-19 briefing Wednesday.
The list includes teachers and staff in pre-K through high school, childcare centers, Head Start and Early Start programs serving low-income families and other licensed childcare providers. Teachers over 50 can get vaccinated at any site in the state and teachers under 50 can get vaccinated at Kroger and Meijer locations, according to state eligibility guidelines.
President Joe Biden announced Tuesday he plans to prioritize teachers for the vaccine.
“We, per our federal partners, made that vaccination available,” Holcomb said in the press conference. “They have also since required states to prioritize teachers.”
Residents in Indiana with certain underlying conditions are also eligible to receive the vaccine, following an ISDH update Wednesday morning. Individuals who are eligible include dialysis patients, sickle cell disease patients, individuals with Down syndrome, people who received a post-solid organ transplant and people in treatment for cancer.
Holcomb said he received the vaccine on Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He said the only side effect he had was feeling sluggish later that day and felt sore the following day.
Indiana’s positivity rate is at 3.1% as of Wednesday afternoon, Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box said. On Indiana’s color-coded county map, 61 counties are blue, indicating a very low transmission of the virus. 32 counties are in yellow, indicating a low risk, and one county is orange, indicating a medium risk.
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Holcomb said he intends on delivering a statewide address within the next few weeks to discuss how the state’s case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths have changed since March 2020. He did not give additional details on when this address will take place.
