COLUMBUS – As President-elect Joe Biden criticizes the Trump administration for the pace of distributing COVID-19 vaccines, Ohio reports that it has vaccinated over 70,000 health care workers, first responders and other high-priority individuals.
The 71,625 people who had received the first of two doses of the vaccines as of Tuesday represent 0.61% of the state’s total population.
The state reported 7,526 new confirmed cases of the virus on Tuesday, an uptick from the previous week when the average number of daily new cases was 6,505 but lower than the three-week rolling average of 8,217 cases per day.
The number of deaths due to COVID-19 in Ohio increased by 151, more than double the 21-day average, to 8,722 and the number of newly hospitalized patients increased by 560 to a total of 37,636 since the onset of the pandemic.
A total of 4,516 Ohioans were being treated for the disease in hospitals statewide Tuesday, 16.3% of the state’s capacity of inpatient beds.
Approximately 23% of the Ohioans in the hospital were there to be treated for COVID-19.
The state’s seven-day rate of positive COVID-19 tests had dropped to 12.6% by Sunday.
Biden says the administration’s “effort to distribute and administer the vaccine is not progressing as it should,” and says that at the current pace, “it’s gonna take years, not months, to vaccinate the American people.”
According to Biden, only 2.1 million Americans have begun the vaccination process, well short of the 20 million vaccinations the Trump administration predicted by the end of December.
“We need to be honest — the next few weeks and months are going to be very tough, very tough for our nation,” he said.
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Ohio says a death row inmate who survived an execution attempt has died with the coronavirus as the suspected cause.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction says condemned killer Romell Broom died Monday at age 64.
Broom is on the agency’s “COVID probable list” for inmates suspected to have died of COVID-19 pending a death certificate, department spokesperson Sara French said.
The 2009 execution of Broom by lethal injection was called off after two hours when Ohio prison technicians were unable to find a suitable vein. Broom cried in pain while receiving 18 needle sticks.