Summit County officials say they expect members of the general public will be declared eligible for a vaccine as soon as mid-March. The point is quickly approaching, they say, when the vaccine supply will no longer be the limiting factor in inoculating residents.
Park Record file photo
Summit County health officials are set to double the capacity of the drive-thru vaccine site at Quinn’s Junction as they ready to offer the vaccine against COVID-19 to the general public something that might happen in as little as two weeks.
“I would anticipate that we should all be gearing up for opening to the general public in March. I think it’s going to happen sooner than we think it is going to happen,” said Health Director Rich Bullough. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the middle of March. I’d be very surprised if it went beyond the end of March.”
Summit County continues to receive less vaccine than it can distribute. Health Director Rich Bullough, pictured with Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson during a vaccine site tour Friday, said that 1/3 of the doses administered so far have gone to non-county residents.
Tanzi Propst/Park Record
Some Summit County staffers sported jackets and neckties when Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson arrived on Friday for a tour of Summit County’s vaccine clinic, one that officials have said can deliver three times the number of doses it receives from the state each week.
After the tour, Summit County Health Director Rich Bullough said local health departments have seen modestly larger vaccine shipments from the state in recent weeks, but revealed some challenges have hit Summit County particularly hard.
Courtesy of Summit County
The Summit County Health Department has begun to receive doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and is stepping up its campaign to inoculate residents even as it prepares to confront shortfalls of supply and reluctance by some to receive the shots.
Health Director Rich Bullough said Tuesday the county was nearly finished inoculating those who would administer the vaccine to others, and was working toward vaccinating health care providers like private practice physicians not associated with a hospital group.
The county is working through that first group and expects to move on to first responders and teachers next, followed by residents who are 75 and older.