Indiana to make COVID-19 vaccines available at some large companies, universities

Indiana plans to offer tens of thousands of COVID-19 vaccine doses to large companies for the first time to administer to employees.

State health officials said Wednesday about a dozen companies with 1,000 or more employees are in the process of launching vaccine clinics. They did not name the companies.

The move comes as the state seeks to expand vaccination sites beyond hospitals, pharmacies and health centers.

Next in line are six universities and colleges that will begin administering a total of 60,000 doses next week on campus. Those institutions are Indiana University in Bloomington, Purdue University, IUPUI, University of Notre Dame, Butler University and Goshen College.

Three other unnamed colleges are in the process of finalizing on-campus vaccine clinics.

The goal is to get at least the first of two shots into the arms of college students before they leave campus for summer break, officials said.

“We are embarking upon one of the most exciting times in our pandemic response over the next week, and we hope to see Hoosiers turn out in droves to get their vaccine,” said Dr. Lindsay Weaver, chief medical officer for the Indiana State Department of Health.

The announcement came during Gov. Eric Holcomb’s weekly press conference, the same day that the state expanded eligibility to all Hoosiers age 16 and older. In the first day of registration for the expanded eligibility group, nearly 100,000 Hoosiers made appointments by noon Wednesday through the state’s central registration process.

Indiana also dropped the state residency requirement, a move that allows college students from other states to get vaccines, but would also permit people from neighboring states to come to Indiana for shots.

State officials have been hinting in recent weeks they wanted to expand vaccine clinics to companies and universities, but did not announce details until Wednesday. The large companies that will get doses have in-house clinics or third-party clinics to handle the vaccinations, Weaver said.

Indiana learned on Tuesday it can expect to receive more than 405,000 doses this week from the federal government, which controls the supply. That’s up from 327,000 doses a week at the beginning of March.

“These supplies are critical to our effort to gets shots in the arm of every Hoosier who wants a vaccination as quickly as possible,” Weaver said.

On top of that, the federal government plans to open a mass vaccination clinic in Gary on April 7, running every day for eight weeks, with the goal of administering 2,000 doses a day.

The state will administer another 1,000 doses a day from mobile units that will crisscross eight counties in northwest Indiana.

It was unclear Wednesday whether Indiana’s expected vaccine allotment would be affected by mix-up at a Baltimore manufacturing plant that ruined up to 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.