The need is still there, she said.
Stark County is echoing a trend seen nationwide.
Meanwhile, Louisiana has stopped asking the federal government for its full allotment of COVID-19 vaccine. About three-quarters of Kansas counties have turned down new shipments of the vaccine at least once over the past month. And in Mississippi, officials asked the federal government to ship vials in smaller packages so they don’t go to waste.
“It is kind of stalling. Some people just don’t want it,” said Stacey Hileman, a nurse with the health department in rural Kansas’ Decatur County, where less than a third of the county’s 2,900 residents have received at least one vaccine dose.
In early December, the Canton Police Department had as many as 16 officers out due to COVID.
And so far in 2021, only one Canton police officer out of the 169 in the department (plus another 53 other city police employees) has been able to get a dose of the vaccine, Chief Jack Angelo said. The one who did was on a waiting list in another county.
Ohio last month decided not to follow federal recommendations to make police officers an immediate vaccination priority, dashing Angelo s hopes of getting his police force inoculated quickly.
With police officers regularly being off sick and higher crime levels, Angelo fears officers forced to work extended hours could burn out. He said he can t put more than one officer in a squad car until the officer and their partner are vaccinated.