Ohio divulges 1st COVID-19 mass vaccination sites
COLUMBUS – Columbus’ Celeste Center, Cincinnati’s Cintas Center and Akron’s Chapel Hill Mall are among the 16 mass COVID-19 vaccination clinics that will open near the end of this month.
Gov. Mike Dewine announced the state’s first long-term mass vaccination site at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center will open March 17 and last eight weeks. That location will allow as many as 6,000 people to receive a COVID-19
vaccine each day.
Starting March 19, two pop-up sites will open in Columbus and Cincinnati. They will last three to four days and have 12,500 doses each. Specific locations were not immediately announced.
Later in the month, Ohio will launch mass vaccination sites in 11 cities: Akron, Chillicothe, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Lima, Marietta, Maumee, Wilmington, Youngstown and Zanesville. Four mobile mass vaccination clinics will make rounds in the areas of Ada, Athens, Mansfield and Steubenville. Those locations are listed here.
The Cleveland site is a partnership with President Joe Biden’s administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Vaccine doses administered there will be in addition to Ohio’s regular allotment, which was about 448,000 doses this week.
It was chosen because of its proximity to high-risk citizens and underserved populations. More than 25,000 Ohioans live within one mile of the site and 45% of those residents live below the poverty level, 66% are minorities and 6.36% are elderly.
“This long-term clinic will reach the most people yet – particularly those in Ohio’s most vulnerable populations and those who face barriers in accessing health care,” Dewine said in a statement.
The Ohio Department of Health, Ohio National Guard and Ohio Emergency Management Agency will manage the Wolstein Center site with support from federal and local officials.
Any Ohioan eligible to receive the vaccine under Ohio’s guidelines may be vaccinated at the clinic, but the focus will be on high-risk and underserved residents.