Anna Huntsman/WCPN
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Anna Huntsman/WCPN
Holmes County, Ohio, General Health District staff members (from left) Michael Derr, Jennifer Talkington and Abbie Benton prepare materials for a COVID-19 vaccine clinic this month inside St. Peter's Catholic Church in Millersburg.
Anna Huntsman/WCPN
The Amish communities of northeast Ohio engage in textbook communal living. Families eat, work and go to church together, and through the pandemic, mask-wearing and social distancing have been spotty. As a result, these communities have experienced some of the state's highest rates of infection and deaths.
Nevertheless, health officials are struggling to get residents vaccinated. Holmes County, where half of the population is Amish, has the lowest vaccination rate in Ohio, with just 10% of its roughly 44,000 residents fully vaccinated.