Emergency medical technician Josh Hendrick sat in a chair at a Downtown hospital campus Monday as a nurse placed a small tube into each of his nostrils.

With a quick inhalation of mist, Hendrick became one of the first people in the nation to receive a fully tested vaccine against the H1N1 virus.

Marion County was among the first to distribute the vaccine because it had a plan in place. Other Indiana counties are making plans to distribute the first shipments of the H1N1 flu vaccine as early as next week.

Hendrick and a line of about 100 doctors, nurses and other health-care providers of Wishard Health Services received their doses about the same time as medical professionals in Memphis, Tenn., got theirs. The vaccination will take about one to two weeks to kick in.

“Some people had some concerns, but I am faithful that it’s going to work,” said Hendrick.

The Indiana State Department of Health will receive and dole out about 28,700 doses of the mist vaccine, an allotment based on population, to health departments in at least 43 of Indiana’s 92 counties.

Marion County selected about 3,500 hospital emergency departments and critical-care unit workers for its first round.

Neighboring Hendricks County announced Monday that it will begin giving 1,300 doses of the mist as early as next week to people facing the highest risk of illness or complications from the flu. Its list includes healthy people ages 2 to 24, health-care workers and caregivers of children younger than 6 months.

“Because it is such a limited amount of vaccine, we want to put it where it can get in the eligible priority groups the quickest,” said Dr. David Hadley of the Danville-based department.

North of Indianapolis, the Hamilton County Health Department expects 2,600 doses of inhalable vaccine this week. Spokesman Tony Benge said the county remains undecided on which priority groups will receive it. No doses will be given until that plan is complete, he said.

Later in the month, the state and county health departments are scheduled to receive the injectable vaccine.

Eventually, Indiana — with a population estimated at 6.3 million — should receive about 4 million of the 195 million doses of H1N1, or swine flu, vaccine that the government ordered for the country, said State Health Commissioner Dr. Judith Monroe.