Indiana’s rate of COVID-19 vaccination shots has remained sluggish in recent weeks while coronavirus-related hospitalizations have slowly climbed to their highest number since February.
State health department statistics updated Wednesday show that about 2 million people have been fully vaccinated in Indiana, or about 37% of those ages 16 and older. Indiana’s vaccination rate has remained at about 40,000 people a day over the past three weeks.
That is down from the state’s peak of more than 50,000 a day in early April. Health officials have said they are worried about increased risk from more contagious coronavirus variants at a time when so many people aren’t immunized.
On the local end, 17,825 people have been fully vaccinated as of Wednesday in Kosciusko County, while nearly 40,000 doses have now been administered.
Kosciusko County continued in a yellow advisory in the newest update as numbers took a slight uptick. Weekly cases were 143, up from 114 last week, while the positivity rate was 4.4 percent, up two-tenths of a percentage point from last week.
Whitley County numbers fell and could go into a yellow advisory next week if metrics hold or further improve. Wabash and Fulton Counties remained in blue, while Elkhart County remained in orange. Across the state, positivity rate was 4.8 percent, up from 4.4 percent last week. The average number of deaths from COVID continues to fall, with numbers as low as averages seen when the pandemic began in March of 2020.
