COLUMBUS – Even with hundreds of thousands of doses of COVID-19 vaccine due in Ohio over the next few weeks, Gov. Mike DeWine is warning that the state’s troubles are far from over.
Ohioans must continue to be vigilant in protecting against the spread of the coronavirus, he said during a briefing Tuesday afternoon. Despite the arrival of more than 661,000 doses by early January, the state will be hard-pressed to vaccinate enough people to keep up with the number of Ohioans being admitted to hospitals.
“We’re at a very, very high rate today and the rest of December, January, February, they’re probably going to be hell unless we turn this thing around,” DeWine told reporters.
There are more people with COVID-19 in intensive care now than were hospitalized in total with the coronavirus over the summer, he said. Of the 5,296 patients hospitalized throughout the state, 1,311 are in ICUs.
The 614 new hospital admissions reported Tuesday was the second-highest 24-hour total of the pandemic, DeWine said.
Eight more Ohio hospitals received supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Tuesday, bringing the total number of vaccine doses delivered to Ohio over the past two days to 98,475, and frontline medical workers were first in line to receive a dose.
A 975-dose shipment delivered to OhioHealth Riverside Hospital for use at OhioHealth O’Bleness Hospital in Athens.
Although vaccine supplies are currently limited, DeWine says the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has advised that Ohio will continue to receive vaccinations throughout the month of December.
Next week, Ohio is expected to receive 123,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, as well as 201,900 doses of the Moderna vaccine, which the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday appears safe and highly effective.
During the week of New Year’s, Ohio is expected to receive an additional 148,000 Pfizer vaccines and an additional 89,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine, DeWine said.
The state Tuesday reported 8,755 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, raising the total number of cases since the pandemic began to 579,357 with 7,654 deaths.