Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will hold a virtual town hall Tuesday, March 2 to discuss the challenges facing rural community getting resident vaccinated. Ashland has vaccinated 9.5% of its residents compared to the state average of 14.4% but they say they re only getting 100 doses of the vaccine.
Health departments and community organizations are combing efforts to make sure residents over 65 years old who want the COVID-19 vaccine get registered.
Ashland and Wayne counties have online registries that may prove difficult to navigate for individuals who do not have a computer or internet access in their homes. Holmes County’s registry is by phone only at this time.
The local health departments did not report any major issues in senior citizens having difficulties signing up. The Phase 1B registry list in Wayne County surpassed 15,000 people last week and more than 14,000 people had registered in Ashland County, although representatives for each health department reported some people registered more than once.
Christine Jenkinson
University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center kept busy Friday distributing COVID-19 vaccines to hundreds of people. We are going to give 400 shots, said Kathy Witmer, director of communications and development, early in the day. They will not get wasted.
First-responders who didn t receive their first dose yet, as well as local residents 80 years old and older who signed up to receive their first dose, received the vaccine at Friday s clinic.
Samaritan, Drug Mart and the Ohio Department of Health worked together to provide residents the vaccine for the first round of Friday s public clinic at Samaritan. Our first meeting to coordinate this was Tuesday, Witmer said. We have pulled this together in a really short period of time.
Health officials in Ashland, Holmes and Wayne counties, who are responsible for vaccinating the EMS staff, are lamenting the limited supply of shots.
“I am disappointed because we would like to move more quickly,” Holmes County General Health District Commissioner Mike Derr said of his agency’s 100-dose per week shipments from the state.
Wayne County Health Commissioner Nick Cascarelli said his department had vaccinated about 950 members of the 1A group as of Wednesday, and 400 more 1A-eligible individuals have already registered for the coming weeks.
Despite the numbers and letters, one phase of the state’s vaccination plan does not have to be deemed complete for the next to begin. And the beginning of a new phase does not lock members of previous groups who have not been vaccinated out of doing so.
Moving into Phase 1B of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, health commissioners and vaccine providers caution not everyone will be vaccinated as soon as they become eligible due to a lack of vaccine shipments. We re committed to everyone being vaccinated, but it would be irresponsible to promise that today or in the near future, said Nick Cascarelli, Wayne County health commissioner. I feel for a lot of this community. . It s a supply and demand issue and the demand far exceeds the supply.
Phase 1B addresses the most vulnerable populations, starting with people ages 80 and older the week of Jan. 18; ages 75 and older and those with severe congenital, developmental or early-onset medical disorders the week of Jan. 25; ages 70 and older the week of Feb. 1; and those ages 65 and older the week of Feb. 8.