Good afternoon. This is the WFHB Local News for Tuesday, May 4th, 2021.

Later in the program, we have an excerpt from the May edition of the Brown County Hour - a monthly arts and culture program from the hills of Brown County. In today’s excerpt, host Dave Seastrom speaks with local musician Kenan Rainwater about his studio’s weekly livestream featuring performers from throughout Southern Indiana and the surrounding areas. More coming up in today’s feature report.

Also coming up in the next half hour, pavement work for the 1-69 Finish Line project is set to take place this week in Morgan County. More in today’s headlines.

But first, your local news brief:

Released in a statement today, the Indiana Department of Health reported 824 new COVID-19 cases from Hoosiers after being tested at state and private laboratories. 12 more people have died from COVID-19 since the previous day. This information brings the total numbers to 724,214 of Indiana residents who tested positive for coronavirus, and 12,950 Hoosiers who died from the virus. A total of 9,875,046 tests have been taken for Indiana residents since Feb, 26, 2020 reported by the state Department of Health.

In terms of vaccinations for Indiana, the state is in the bottom fifth of states being fully vaccinated. There are currently eight states below Indiana that have delivered at least one shot, according to the New York Times. Nearly 2 million Hoosiers are now fully vaccinated. That includes ages 16 and older.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb has lifted the mask mandate for the state, however, counties: Monroe, Elkhart, LaPort, and St. Joseph have still decided to keep the mandate in place.

Fox59 news for Indianapolis reminded citizens that there are places that require a mask no matter what county you are in. Those places include, schools, state government buildings, and coronavirus testing and vaccine sites.

Governor Holcomb still continues to encourage hoosiers to wear masks in public, and the CDC and President Joe Biden have encouraged all Americans to keep wearing their masks.

The New York Times reported that President Biden is announcing a shift in the United States’ strategy for vaccinations, with the goal to have 70 percent of American adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4th of this year.

The shift includes creating more pop-up and mobile clinics for citizens to get walk-in appointments for the coronavirus vaccine shot. The federal government will also be shipping more doses to rural clinics.

This, the President said, is all in an effort to vaccinate 70 percent of American adults at least partially by July 4th.

Bloomington Vaccine Site Update

Monroe County Health Administrator Penny Caudill announced last week that the county will be winding down its vaccination clinic at the Monroe County Convention Center. Caudill said that remaining appointments will be picked up at Indiana University’s Assembly Hall site.

The County will be putting up those resources to use in pop-up vaccination sites. The first site will be open on Thursday, May 6th at the Crestmont Boys and Girls Club. Anyone ages 16 and older can come without making an appointment. Caudill clarified that the pop-up vaccination site will be open to anyone looking for their first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, but that special efforts are being made to reach out Bloomington’s Spanish-speaking population.

Some local distributors of the coronavirus vaccine are now taking walk-in appointments, as well. IU Health President Brian Shockney said that walk-ins are welcome up to 2 hours before the IU Health vaccine clinic closes. Kirk White, Assistant Vice President at IU, echoed that time table for the Assembly Hall clinic.

A second pop-in vaccine site, which will administer follow-up shots for folks who visit the May 6th si...