Gov. DeWine announced Friday that Ohio will receive confirmed shipments of 299,475 doses of vaccine beginning around Dec. 15, with another 359,000 doses tentatively scheduled to arrive days later (Source: “DeWine outlines distribution of hundreds of thousands of doses of COVID-19 vaccines,” Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 4).
The priority groups for the first vaccinations are health care workers who tend to virus patients, emergency medical first responders and residents and staff of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. Also in the first phase for vaccinations are those in state psychiatric hospitals and veterans homes and people with intellectual disabilities and mental illness, and the staff who care for them, in group homes, DeWine said.
DeWine conducted a news conference on Friday afternoon to provide more details on the state's plans to inoculate Ohioans against coronavirus, which now has infected 456,963 people and killed 6,882.
Friday’s high numbers extend a surge of spreading infections that saw monthly cases more than triple in November while the number of deaths also continues to accelerate. Daily hospitalizations totaled 392 on Friday to reduce the number of virus inpatients by 320 to 5,092, a level that still concerns health officials worried about ICU beds and staffing.
The seven-day average positive rate on virus tests increased to 15.5%.