On December 31, the Indiana State Department of Health announced that dental professionals are now eligible to receive the COVID vaccine. Dentists in Indiana should have received an email from ISDH with registration information, but IDA also emailed the details to members as a convenience.

Staff members in a practice whose duties involve direct patient contact are also eligible to receive the vaccine at this time. Hygienists should be receiving an email from the state based on the email address listed in their account with the Professional Licensing Agency, but dentists may share the ISDH information with staff as necessary.

For updated information about the COVID-19 vaccine, visit the ISDH website or the CDC COVID-19 vaccine information page.

As of December 2, two pharmaceutical companies have received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the FDA for COVID-19 vaccines. It is our understanding that supplies of these vaccines will be distributed to states through various federal agencies with the first phase of administration, hopefully taking place by the end of the year. If you have not already received it, you and other licensed health care providers will likely soon receive information from the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) regarding COVID vaccines.

Both the CDC and ISDH have emphasized that residents and caregivers in long-term care facilities will take top priority for the first round of vaccine distribution, given that residents of these facilities comprise a heavily disproportionate percentage of COVID deaths. Other high priority populations include patients and caregivers in hospitals, home health care settings, pharmacies, dialysis centers, emergency medical services, frontline public health interventions, and COVID-19 diagnostic and immunization teams. Below are several key points about vaccine distribution:

• At this point it is unclear how many doses of the vaccine Indiana will receive for the first phase of administration. The number of available doses will obviously affect who receives the vaccines and when.
• Updates on vaccine availability and priorities will be distributed through the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (PLA) and the IDA.
• Currently there is no guidance on whether all employees of a health care facility are considered high priority for the COVID vaccine, or if only those who provide direct care to patients will be included among the first round of vaccines.
• There will be no charge to receive the vaccine but administrators may require insurance information for administration purposes.
• The approved Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses, each several weeks apart.

While the news is encouraging, it will be some time before we know when the vaccines will be available for dentists. For updated information about the COVID-19 vaccine, visit the ISDH website or the CDC COVID-19 vaccine information page.

The Indiana State Department of Health has partnered with Battelle Critical Care Decontamination System (CCDS) on an exciting initiative that give will dentists the ability to reduce waste while also safely reusing hard-to-find N95 masks.

Batelle will decontaminate N95 respirators up to four times, free of charge, for healthcare facilities starting this month. Battelle’s decontamination system uses high concentrations of vapor phase hydrogen peroxide (VPHP) to decontaminate PPE, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for Battelle during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To get started with Battelle CCDS, visit www.battelle.com/decon to enroll in this program. Battelle will then email links to the enrollment contract, instructions and a Battelle point of contact. Each facility will be assigned a 3-digit code.

N95 masks collected must be unsoiled (free of blood, mucus, make-up, lip balm, etc.). We encourage you to start saving your used N95s now for future decontamination. Once the system is up and running, you will receive more information and instructions for shipping masks to and from Battelle. Unfortunately, KN95 masks are not part of the program at this time.

ISDH and IDA are excited to bring this much-needed resource to dentists to aid in our COVID-19 response.