Vaccine clinics will be busy next week
Clark County district is slated to give 8,000 doses, a big increase.
The Clark County Combined Health District is slated to give roughly 8,000 COVID-19 vaccines next week, the county’s health commissioner says.
That’s double the county’s busiest week, which was this week. Between Tuesday and Thursday, the county gave 4,000 doses, CCCHD health commissioner Charles Patterson said.
Of the roughly 8,000 vaccines the county is expected to receive next week, 4,500 are Moderna second doses, which will be given to the K-12 school facility and others who have received their first dose of Moderna, Patterson said.
“We are getting 4,500 doses of Moderna vaccine for second doses for all of our K-12 educators and people who got Moderna vaccines four weeks ago,” Patterson said. “We are slated to give 8,000 COVID vaccinations in Clark County next week — 2,000 will be given on Tuesday, 2,500 on Wednesday, 2,000 on Thursday and 1,500 on Saturday.”
None of the 3,500 vaccines available for first doses next week will be Johnson & Johnson, Patterson said, even though the health district has “begged the state for more.” He said the vaccine has been extremely popular in the county, as it only requires one dose.
This week the county gave 300 doses of the vaccine, and it was gone after two clinics.
“But we’ve been told not to expect any more shipments of Johnson & Johnson for the next two weeks,” Patterson said. “We want our citizens in Clark County to have a choice.”
Patterson called the Johnson & Johnson vaccine “a great tool to have in our toolkit for those who for some reason have allergies to the other ones, their doctors have recommended it or those individuals who don’t like needles.”
“I had a guy this week who said, ‘I haven’t had a vaccine in 20 years. I want to be protected, but I’m only doing this once because I hate needles,’ ” Patterson said.
The health district is still taking appointments for residents 60 and older. Those working in childcare, funeral services, law enforcement and corrections officers are eligible under Phase 1c, as well as people with type 1 diabetes, pregnancy, bone marrow transplant recipients and people with ALS.
In addition to those newly eligible, those with a qualifying health condition from Phase 1b can also schedule an appointment.
Those who were eligible for vaccination in Phase 1a are able to schedule appointments. That includes nonhospital affiliated health-care workers and congregate-care residents and staff and nursing home or assisted living facilities not enrolled in the federal long-term care pharmacy program.
Residents eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine can schedule an appointment by calling the health district at 937717-2439 or by going online to ccchd.com.
Clark County had 12,352 cases and 256 total deaths of the coronavirus as of Friday, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
Ohio reported 1,750 daily cases of coronavirus on Friday, marking the sixth time in the last seven days that the state has reported fewer than 2,000 cases a day, according to ODH.
The state’s 21-day average also dropped below 2,000 to 1,976 cases a day. Throughout the pandemic, Ohio has recorded 976,230 cases.
The state reported 752 COVID-related deaths on Friday, including 428 Ohioans who died outside of the state. ODH Director Stephanie McCloud said those 428 people list Ohio as their primary residence but may be residents who spend winters out of the state or have recently moved but did not update their residence information.
McCloud noted that when the state moved to a new death reporting system last week, she asked ODH staff to reach out to other states the department hadn’t heard from recently and believes the increase may be the result of those efforts.
“Other states do not send these death certificates to ODH’s Bureau of Vital Statistics on a regular schedule, and therefore fluctuations will be reflected in reported mortality data,” a message on ODH’s coronavirus dashboard says.
As of Friday, Ohio recorded 17,656 deaths in the state and 17,502 deaths of Ohio residents.
Contact this reporter at 937-610-7447 or email Riley. Newton@coxinc.com.