Health commissioners warn about fall resurgence of COVID-19 the-daily-record.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from the-daily-record.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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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.
Ohio Amish Shun COVID-19 Vaccines As Officials Fear A Surge In Cases wosu.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wosu.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Ohio’s idyllic Amish country, which includes several northeast Ohio counties, looks like a snapshot from the past.
Cars navigate around buggies traveling on the winding roads while large billboards lure tourists with homemade cheeses and expertly sewn quilts.
But many in this community are resistant to modern medical interventions and are also hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccine, even as the pandemic has sickened and killed local residents.
Holmes County, where half of the population is Amish, has the lowest vaccination rate in the state, with just 10 percent of the population fully vaccinated.
Green pastures and big red barns mark the landscape in Millersburg, Ohio, in the heart of the second-largest Amish settlement in the United States. [Anna Huntsman / ideastream]