Signs give instructions for patients entering the St. Joseph County Health Department’s COVID-19 vaccine clinic inside St. Hedwig Memorial Center in South Bend. South Bend Tribune Photo/ROBERT FRANKLIN
St. Joseph County health officials say they could handle more COVID-19 vaccine doses from the state, and Indiana officials say they could handle more from the federal government.
All of them have grown increasingly frustrated as vaccine doses trickle their way across the country.
As of Friday, about 16,000 people in St. Joseph County, roughly 9% of the adult population, had received at least their first dose. But the county health department and other providers have enough staff and volunteers to have vaccinated more than twice as many people by now, according to the county’s deputy health officer, Dr. Mark Fox.
He and the lead county health officer, Dr. Robert Einterz, glimpsed a ray of hope when state officials told them they were planning a pop-up vaccination clinic this weekend at Ivy Tech Community College in South Bend, with plans to give 600 doses Saturday and 600 more Sunday.
But that plan evaporated Wednesday night, when, Fox said, State Epidemiologist Pam Pontones called him to say the pop-up clinic was being canceled for lack of doses.
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