Ohio schools prepare for COVID vaccine rollout on Feb. 1
Less than two weeks remain until Ohio s K-12 school employees can receive COVID-19 vaccines, a rollout that could be a mad rush if supplies remain limited.
It s still unclear how the state plans to divide the scarce vaccines between districts, though, and how and where employees will receive them.
This week, for example, the state only received about 100,000 vaccine doses. In the 2019-20 school year, more than 334,000 people, including substitute employees, worked in K-12 public and private schools, according to Ohio Department of Education data.
About 9% of them, or 37,000 workers, live in Franklin County. Nearly 17%, or 56,000, reside throughout central Ohio (Franklin County and its contiguous counties).
Jerome DeCarlo received a COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 31. He is an essential worker but doesn’t work in a hospital or a nursing home.
DeCarlo serves as the coordinator at Marsh Brook Place, a 40-unit apartment complex on the Southeast Side for young people ages 18 to 24 who have faced homelessness or other serious barriers to stability such as being a victim of domestic violence or dealing with mental health or substance abuse issues.
“We are boots on the ground, said DeCarlo
, who is employed by Huckleberry House, a youth-serving nonprofit agency that provides on-site services such as counseling and job training at Marsh Brook.
Of the more than 6 million people in the U.S. who have received shots of the two new COVID-19 vaccines, at least 29 have suffered anaphylaxis, a severe and dangerous reaction that can constrict airways and send the body into shock, according to the CDC.