Ohio looks to ease access to vaccine
Mass vaccination site in Cleveland will try a walk-up, no appointment option.
Ohio is working to test a walk-up coronavirus clinic in which patients don’t need an appointment beforehand, Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday.
The state also released new numbers showing that 22% of Ohioans have received an initial dose of vaccine, and DeWine talked about the number of new cases continuing to decline. »
Vaccine appointments for next week open now in Clark County,
While plans are still being finalized, the governor said the state is hoping to test a walk-up option for a controlled group at the mass vaccination site in Cleveland in the coming days.
Ohio started its vaccination rollout with scheduled appointments in an effort to avoid clinics where people waited in long lines for several hours.
DeWine noted that system has worked well once a person can get an appointment, but that the process can be frustrating for some.
“No matter how easy or hard it is (to get an appointment), it still poses a barrier to some people,” he said.
More than 2.5 million people in Ohio have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 1,484,761 people have finished it as of Thursday, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
Nearly 22% of Ohioans have received the first dose and 12.7% have completed the vaccine.
Starting today, people 40 and older and those with chronic kidney disease, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, obesity or cancer will be eligible to receive the vaccine in Ohio. Beginning March 29, all Ohioans 16 and older will be eligible.
The Pfizer vaccine is the only COVID vaccine authorized in the U.S. for people 16 and older. Both Johnson & Johnson and Moderna are authorized for people 18 and older.
“We are working with providers to indicate if they have the Pfizer vaccine available so that parents will be able to tell where they can take their teens to receive the vaccine,” the governor said.
DeWine said the state is expanding vaccine eligibility after multiple health departments, including in the Dayton area, said they were ready. The federal government has also indicated that Ohio will see an increase in its vaccine shipments the week of March 29 to about 500,000 doses. This week Ohio received 400,000 vaccines and its expected to get another 400,000 next week.
“As we hear more and more about the variants in the country — and Ohio — we know that the faster we are able to get Ohioans vaccinated, the safer and more protected we will be,” he said.
Ohio reported 143.8 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people Thursday as the state continues to work toward lifting all public health orders.
DeWine announced earlier this month that once Ohio gets below 50 cases per 100,000 people all health orders, including a mask mandate, would be lifted. He has received pressure from members of his own Republican party to lift all restrictions now and fully reopen the state.
“It wasn’t long ago that our top county was 11 times what the CDC said was a high incidence level,” he said. “Even the top counties are moving down, and we’re very happy about that.”
For the first time in two weeks, Ohio reported more than 2,000 daily cases of coronavirus. The state recorded 2,104 cases Thursday, bringing its total to 995,785.
DeWine was at a pop-up mass vaccination clinic at Xavier University’s Cintas Center in Cincinnati. The clinic opened Thursday and is scheduled to vaccinate more than 10,000 people over three days.
A second pop-up vaccine clinic at St. John Arena in Columbus also op e ned Thursday.
Registration for both clinics is available at https:// gettheshot.coronavirus.ohio. gov/.
A long-term mass vaccination site that opened in Cleveland on St. Patrick’s Day also will receive about
210,000 vaccines over eight weeks in addition to Ohio’s
weekly allotment. The clinic will ramp up vaccinations
and is able to vaccinate 6,000 people a day.
Contact this reporter at kristen.spicker@coxinc.com.