The no-mask guidance for fully vaccinated people makes sense given the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, Montgomery County’s health officer said.
In his latest report to the health board Tuesday, Dr. Scott Douglas said a recent study showed the vaccines still provide high levels of protection after hundreds of millions of doses, enough data for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to update its guidance.
“I don’t think they should withhold that information from folks because it really is true,” Douglas said in response to a question from board president Nancy Sennett on confusion over the change.
“But on the other hand, that does create confusion in public spaces because we can’t really test everybody or we can’t ask them if they’ve been vaccinated or not,” Douglas added, “so that creates this problem where it’s difficult to enforce masks in folks.”
Public health experts hope the new guidance incentivizes people to get vaccinated. The shots are available though not as many appointments are being filled at the county’s mass vaccination site in the former Save-A-Lot building on East South Boulevard. The site also accepts walk-ins, but no more than 10 people per day have been coming in without an appointment.
More than 35% of Montgomery County residents 12 and older are fully vaccinated, according to the Indiana State Department of Health. The rate is below the state average of 40.3% but higher than some surrounding counties.
“If we want to try to curtail or snuff out this virus this summer, we have to encourage more people to agree to take the vaccine,” Douglas said.
The local health department’s “This is My Shot” social media campaign featuring videos from local residents and physicians talking about the benefits of the vaccine will continue through June. With testing numbers down slightly, the department is also urging people to get tested if they feel sick in any way.
For the vaccine campaign, board member Summer Ervin encouraged the department to find someone who has recovered from COVID-19 to speak about their experiences with the disease caused by the coronavirus.
“Maybe talking about their experience with it can help people think about getting vaccinated [and convince them] that they don’t want [the illness],” Ervin said.
After months of using the former grocery store, local health department administrator Amber Reed said a plan needs to be formed to eventually move the vaccination site to the department’s West Market Street offices. The office already provides Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for children ages 12 to 15 who do not want to go to the South Boulevard site.
B&L Engineering recently purchased the old Save-A-Lot building and has begun demolition work on the unused side while vaccinations continue.
“They don’t plan to do anything on our side until we’re done, but there may come a time when we’re not done yet and they need that side,” Reed said. She added the company has “been great to work with and very helpful for the things that we need and allowing us to continue to use that space.”
A person who answered the phone at B&L’s Crawfordsville office Wednesday morning said no one was available to speak about plans for the building.
More than 4,200 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Montgomery County and 89 people have died since the pandemic began, according to the state health department. Five of the deaths were people under the age of 60, Douglas said.
New cases are down from previous months but not as low as last summer.
The county is adding two to three cases per day, up from one to two average daily cases around the same period in 2020. There were 50 new cases confirmed per day in December when the virus was surging.
An explosion of UK variant cases that public health officials feared would happen in Indiana following Michigan’s outbreak didn’t materialize, but the variant is currently the most dominant strain of COVID-19 in the state.
“We’re sort of baffled in terms of why Indiana escaped a big outbreak in these last couple weeks,” Douglas said.
In other business, the health board is looking for a new member to fill the vacancy created when licensed clinical social worker Maggie Myers resigned. The board is seeking to replace Myers with someone who has a background in mental health.
