INDIANAPOLIS — More than 75,000 Hoosiers now have their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“I have personally seen over 5,000 people in the clinic that I help run get vaccinated,” Kristen Kelley the Director of Infection Prevention at IU Health said.
Kelley said for her the COVID-19 vaccine is a sign of hope. “It is a preventive treatment that helps to give you immunity to COVID-19. This is hope,” she said. “I had a dear friend of mine in the last two weeks that just passed away from COVID. I worked with him for almost a decade. I wish I would have had the opportunity to vaccinate him, because I do believe he would be here today.”
Kelley wants Hoosiers to do their research so when it comes time for the general public to get the vaccine, they have enough reliable information to make a decision. “This disease not only does wreckage if folks are lucky to survive, it can cause months of debilitating issues like heart damage and overall general weakness,” Kelley said.
She said health experts are still concerned that we will see another surge in coronavirus cases now that the holidays have passed.
“Since December 19th, we've had 6,400 new cases of COVID. Just in the last few weeks alone 6,400 new cases mean that 6,400 new people on top of everyone else that already had it that is eligible to spread COVID to those around them,” Kelley said.
She said her team at IU Health has made it through the very challenging month of December and while it has been tiring and hard, they have not lost their resolve to keep moving forward to take care of Hoosiers.
