COLUMBUS – With nearly 200,000 Ohioans receiving their second COVID-19 vaccination doses, the state is taking steps to address a wide disparity between whites and Blacks in the rate of vaccinations.
“With African-American citizens, there’s a gap and so we see it every day and we’re living with it every day and it motivates us to do more,” Gov. Mike DeWine said during his regular Tuesday afternoon coronavirus briefing, a few hours after he and First Lady Fran DeWine received their initial doses.
While Blacks make up about 14% of Ohio’s population, they have received only 42,128 of the 882,796 vaccinations administered so far, or less than 5%. Over 600,000 white residents have received the shots. Approximately 114,000 residents have not divulged their race.
DeWine says the state is trying a variety of tactics to eliminate the disparity.
Under Ohio’s vaccination plan, more than 700 providers have received vaccines at widespread locations in each county, rather than adopt the system of establishing large vaccination centers used in other states, assuring that Ohioans do not have to travel long distances to get vaccinated, DeWine said.
Over 60 Federally Qualified Health Centers began serving vulnerable neighborhoods this week and pop-up vaccine sites, set up with the help of the health centers, faith-based communities, and local health departments among at-risk communities, DeWine said. Two sites were hosted in Columbus last week and another is scheduled this week in Cleveland.
The Ohio departments of Health and Medicaid are providing transportation to vaccination sites and local health departments are collaborating with organizations that work to serve Black, Hispanic and Latino, and other underserved populations to provide education and vaccinations when doses are available.
The Ohio Department of Aging is offering on-site vaccination clinics, coordinated with local authorities and with the assistance of the Ohio National Guard, at affordable senior housing communities as part of its Regional Rapid Response Program, DeWine said. On-site clinics will be coordinated with support from the Ohio National Guard.
In addition to newspaper, television, and radio advertisements focused on reaching underserved populations, DeWine says the state’s Minority Health Vaccine Advisory Group will coordinate a series of virtual town hall meetings, which will be live-streamed beginning the week of Feb. 22.
DeWine and first lady Fran DeWine have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday (see above) because both are older than 70. Ohioans 70 and older began receiving the vaccines this week.
We thought it was right to wait our turn, follow the system,” the governor said, acknowledging that the tight supply of vaccine has been a source of frustration for many Ohioans.
The DeWines received their shots from Dr. Kevin Sharrett at Kettering Health Network’s Jamestown office in Greene County.
The procedure was streamed live in a feel-good moment was later overshadowed by a mishap with vaccinations given to a number of nursing home residents.
The governor said some doses of vaccines administered by Walgreens at five nursing homes in northeastern Ohio were not kept properly in cold storage and will have to be given a second time.
DeWine says there was no harmed from the compromised vaccines.
-0-
The number of active cases of COVID-19 in Ohio declined to 97,634 Tuesday, the first time since Nov. 17 that the number of people currently suffering from the disease was below 100,000.
A total of 902,736 Ohioans have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began after 3,657 additional cases were reported Tuesday, a number that is below the three-week average.
There were 106 additional deaths from the disease, bringing the toll to 11,336 with a total of 46,659 hospitalizations. There were 221 new hospital admissions Tuesday and the number of patients currently hospitalized with the virus is 2,488, a number that has been steadily declining in recent weeks. Those patients occupy 9% of the hospital beds in the state.
The seven-day positivity rate for coronavirus is 8%.