It was just in the middle of December when local health care leaders at Deaconess Gateway Hospital in Newburgh were among the first to finally get their doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

And on Friday, Jan. 22, Evansville mayor Lloyd Winnecke, announced Indiana was second in the country on vaccine distribution.

The mayor is specifically referring to distribution per 100 people in a total population.

Those eligible in the Southwest Indiana region to receive vaccines can get doses at Deaconess, St. Vincent, and the Vanderburgh County Health Department.

As of Sunday, nearly 800,000 doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine have been distributed throughout the state, with 500,000 Hoosiers receiving at least one dose.

“And so we just want to stress to people, if it’s your time, you're eligible, get signed up,” said Joe Gries, administrator for the Vanderburgh County Health Department. "If you’re having trouble, call the health department, we’ll definitely try to help you get signed up, get that appointment."

Over at Deaconess, they can vaccinate over 100 patients an hour and have even created new medical office assistant jobs to help with the increased workload.

“So vaccine operations have been going really well,” said Dr. Brad Scheu, an internal medicine specialist at Deaconess. “We've got a great team that has been getting a lot of patients through.”

Health leaders encourage those who are unsure about getting vaccinated to open their minds.

"The more people we can vaccinate, the quicker we can get to the end of this pandemic and make sure people can kind of go back to their old normal as it were,” Gries said.