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‘Extremely low interest’ cancels COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Mooresville

MOORESVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — Health officials have canceled a coronavirus vaccination clinic planned for Saturday due to a lack of interest.

A letter from the Morgan County Health Department said the clinic had “extremely low interest.”

When Indiana officials offered 2,400 doses, Steve Lyday, the health department’s preparedness and response coordinator, jumped at the chance to have a mass-vaccination site in Mooresville. It’s a place the department usually cannot serve and about a 25-minutes drive from a county-run vaccination site in Martinsville.

“Logistically, we couldn’t have two in our county with staff and restrictions on controlling the temperature of the vaccine,” Lyday said.

Lyday said officials later realized how few people signed up. As of Tuesday morning, only 97 appointments were set for a clinic designed to do 180 shots in an hour; basically 30 minutes worth of work.

“It was disappointing that so few people signed up for the clinic,” Lyday said. “So few people for such a large operation. We were asking 40 volunteers to come in on their time off, the school to give us the facility, to have their maintenance people there to do it; we just couldn’t justify it.”

Lyday said plans have changed since the Johnson & Johnson vaccine arrived. At first, people were upset if they couldn’t get that one-shot vaccine. Now, since the pause over blood-clot worries, he believes it’s the last straw for some to believe in any vaccine.

He hopes that changes soon.

For people in Mooresville, cancelling the clinic means a drive to Martinsville or heading to a local retailer to get a shot. It’s not something Lyday wanted to do, but he said he didn’t really have much choice.

“We hated it, absolutely hated it because our mission had been and still is to get shots in the arms. When you can’t do it to any great effectiveness, it’s frustrating.”

People who registered for the Mooresville clinic will be contacted to schedule an appointment in Martinsville; that clinic is at the former Save-A-Lot store on South Main Street.

Beginning on Monday, the clinic at Martinsville will begin accepting walk-in patients.