By JASMINE MINOR
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could soon approve the COVID-19 vaccine for ages 5 to 11, and the vaccine could be rolled out as early as next week.
Holcomb
Gov. Eric Holcomb on Wednesday pushed for Hoosiers to get the flu shot – he got his Wednesday during a news conference – and he also urged parents to get their kids vaccinated when it is available.
“The information is compelling,” Holcomb said. “Mitigation efforts work, and there’s no better indication (inaudible) than being vaccinated.”
Holcomb gave a hard “no” when I-Team 8 asked if he had considered mandating the kids’ vaccine that fights the coronavirus.
The federal government is expected to release millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for kids across the country next week. Indiana is expected to get about 200,000 of those doses.
I-Team 8 learned the state will be expanding to over 1,300 vaccination sites to make the vaccine readily available for Hoosier kids, especially as flu season arrives.
Box
Dr. Kristina Box, Indiana State Health commissioner, appeared with the Republican governor at the news conference. She said, “The concern is and even though our hospitalizations for COVID are going down, we still have right now, our hospitalization census, for everything in the hospitals, is higher than it’s been for the last three to five years.”