As vaccine rates have dwindled, local health officials are concerned that demand in Dearborn County has dropped.
In April, the Dearborn County Health Department hosted a mass vaccination clinic and received a much lower attendance than anticipated. Since then, the numbers have continued to dwindle.
"Most of the people that we're seeing are coming back to their second dose," said Dr. Stephen Eliason, a Dearborn County Health officer.
He said most people who were excited about the chance to get a vaccine have already done so and that vaccine hesitancy, combined with the pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, is contributing to a slowed demand.
"We were seeing about 500 people a day in our clinic and it dropped to basically half of that almost like the next day, we were down, we quickly went down to about 250," said Eliason.
That number is even lower now, he said.
Roughly 41% of Dearborn County's residents have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. Around 33% of residents in the county are fully vaccinated.
"If you love yourself and everyone around you, you'll come out and get the shot," said Kristy Cook, a Greendale resident receiving her second shot.
Eliason said one contributing factor could be that parts of southeast Indiana are rural communities.
President Joe Biden has announced that achieving a 70% vaccination rate is the goal but Eliason said he's concerned demand has slowed down so much that reaching that goal is a long way off.
"If we're only doing 50 people a day, you could drag out for months, if not another year before we get to that number," he said.
The Dearborn County Health Department has opened mass vaccination clinics up to everyone, regardless of which state they live in because of the low demand. Shots are free at the Lawrenceburg Event Center.
