Hamilton County sees demand for COVID-19 boosters, reopens vaccine clinic
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — On Wednesday, Hamilton County’s mass vaccination clinic at the 4-H Fairgrounds reopened.
It’s offering the first, second and booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
The clinic closed in June when demand for the COVID-19 shot slowed, but demand is back because of the boosters.
Terry Taylor, a Noblesville resident who got his booster shot Wednesday, said, “This is a preventative maintenance for me, and it’s extremely important that we get out here and get these vaccines.”
People 65 or older, people 18 or older with underlying medical conditions, and people who live or work in high-risk settings such as schools, correctional facilities and homeless shelters are eligible for the booster shot.
“First one I got over at Riverview (Health hospital), which is my hospital, and then the second one I got here, and now I’m going to have the third one here, and it’s very convenient and it’s a no brainer to me,” Taylor said.
Christian Walker, emergency preparedness coordinator for the Hamilton County Health Department, said, “The great thing about (the fairgrounds) is it’s centrally located within the county. There’s a large room. While Pfizer is the only vaccine that’s approved for boosters right now, we are still doing first doses and second doses of Pfizer in here as well, and we’re preparing for when if and when Moderna receives authorization to be done with booster vaccines as well.”
“We’ve been kind of looking at preparing for booster doses, and at the time third doses about six weeks ago when it first came out that the president and the CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) were looking at that for the population,” Walker said.
He says the booster vaccines are limited to people who got their second Pfizer shot at least six months ago.
The clinic will be running until the demand slows down, the health department leader said.
“It’ll really depend on what demand is for us to be here. There may be other opportunities for us to get out into the community and do more local, focused efforts, which we may look at going down the road, but right now we’re here until demand wanes.”
The health department says walk-ups are welcome, but people can register online.