Gov. Mike DeWine announced a significant expansion of the state’s vaccination program Monday, unveiling both Phase 1C and Phase 2.
Vaccine providers also are now allowed to book appointments three weeks in advance, DeWine said.
DeWine’s Monday briefing came after the CDC and FDA signed off on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine over the weekend, allowing the approximately 90,000 doses expected to be coming to Ohio to begin being administered once they arrive.
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The following announcements were made during Monday’s press conference:
- Additional vaccine is expected to arrive in the state over the next four days. 96,100 of those will be the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Overall, the state will see 448,390 vaccine doses arrive. “This is by far the most,” DeWine said, referring to the state’s weekly doses.
- The Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be sent to about 200 independent pharmacies and also hospitals, health departments and other pharmacies.
- The state has over 1,200 locations in the state where people can schedule a COVID-19 vaccine appointment.
- DeWine has announced that pregnant women, those with Type-1 diabetes, those with bone marrow transplants, those living with ALS will now be able to get the COVID-19 vaccine as part of Phase 1C beginning Thursday.
- Additionally, law enforcement and corrections officers, funeral home workers and childcare providers will also be able to get the vaccine starting Thursday.
- Phase 2 of vaccinations will also begin Thursday, which will include those who are age 60 and above. Two-thirds of the state’s hospitalizations have come from this age group.
- Approximately 941,000 people are included in Phase 1C and Phase 2.
- DeWine said additional mass vaccination sites will be announced in the future, but did not say where or when those would happen. “It’s not too far off,” the Governor said.
- Approximately 200,000 K-12 school workers have been vaccinated as all but 8 of the state’s public school districts have returned to in-person learning. Seven of those eight remaining districts will return to the classroom in the next few weeks, Gov. Mike DeWine said.
- Lt. Gov. Jon Husted criticized the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill saying the formula used in this latest proposal is different from the CARES Act and would cause Ohio to lose $800 million. 33 other states also are expected to lose funding under the proposal, Husted said.
- DeWine said he expects to have a report on the state’s unemployment system by the private sector group looking into the issues the system has had during the pandemic. That report is expected to come in the next few days.