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LANCASTER - Local safety forces leaders are leaving it to their employees discretion to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, while still enforcing state and local safety protocols.
Doses of the vaccine were available to firefighters in December of 2020, and while initially promised to law enforcement officers around the same time, doses for police weren t available in Ohio until March of this year.
And while the vaccine isn t compulsory, local department leaders feel their employees will follow proper guidelines when dealing with the public.
Vaccinations have been made available to much of the general public at this point.
Sheriff s office
Fairfield County Sheriff Alex Lape said the sheriff s office chose to lead by example, getting the vaccine when it was available.
Are COVID-19 vaccines effective?
Yes. Evidence shows that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and work to prevent COVID-19. Of the first two vaccines to be granted FDA emergency use authorization, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 95% effective and the Moderna vaccine was 94% effective in phase 3 clinical trials with more than 70,000 participants between the two studies. Although the COVID-19 vaccines have been developed recently, the technology used in mRNA vaccines, like those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, has been studied for decades.
When will the other distribution phases begin?
As vaccine supply increases, Ohio will continue to vaccinate Ohioans who choose to receive the vaccine. The speed at which Ohio will move through the phases depends on the number of vaccines available.