COLUMBUS – As Ohio prepares to vaccinating residents age 65 and older against the coronavirus, Gov. Mike DeWine says the state can expect to see more doses of the vaccine from both Pfizer and Moderna in coming weeks.
Like many states, vaccinations are slow to be administered in Ohio because the vaccine is slow to arrive.
“We’re hopeful that these numbers are going to go up but what we don’t have the power to do in Ohio is manufacture the drugs,” DeWine said at his Thursday coronavirus briefing.
“It’s just a fact,” he said. “We don’t have enough vaccine.”
Drugmaker Pfizer has predicted it will increase the amount of vaccine available for federal shipment by about 40% around the middle of February and hopes to double its current weekly allotment of 73,000 doses to Ohio by the end of March, while Moderna is increasing its 73,000 doses to about 105,600, starting next week.
Once the state opens vaccinations to people 65 and older Monday DeWine says it will hold at that age level for several weeks because that population is so large, approximately 2 million people.
The governor says the supply will also be increased if Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine is approved by regulators.
The company has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to clear the drug for emergency use but the agency wants its independent advisers to publicly debate all the data before it decides whether to green light a third vaccine option in the U.S.
Ohio was one of the first states to draw unused doses from the long-term care program, and those 77,000 extra doses are being delivered this week to select CVS and Walgreens pharmacies.
So far, 935,383 Ohioans have received the first dose of the vaccine and 238,732, or about 2% of the state’s population, have completed the vaccine regimen.
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Unemployment agencies across the country were bombarded with so many claims during the pandemic that many struggled to distinguish the correct from the criminal.
Even DeWine, First Lady Fran DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted learned that fraudulent claims had been filed in their names.
Anyone who receives a form but did not get benefits, such as the DeWines and Husted, might be the victim of identity theft.
The department has set up a toll-free number – 833-658-0394 — for individuals to notify the agency if they believe their personal information was compromised and used to file a fraudulent unemployment claim: This number is staffed by 50 dedicated customer service representatives from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Anyone who suspects they may have been victimized can also go to the agency’s website and click on the “Report Identity Theft” button.
Now, DeWine has announced a new 16-member public-private partnership team to address problems in Ohio’s overloaded unemployment compensation system.
The experts, most of whom are on loan from Fifth Third Bank, Nationwide, KeyBank and other leading banking and insurance companies, will help improve the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services unemployment call center, claims process, and fraud detection efforts.
“With the combination of the huge number of claims, and the combination of significant professional fraudsters out there, it’s kind of a tsunami all coming together,” DeWine said.
Nearly 2.3 million Ohioans have filed initial claims for unemployment benefits in the 46 weeks since the pandemic began and last month, the agency issued 1.7 million 1099-G tax forms to those individuals who received benefits during 2020.
After 237 patients were admitted to hospitals over the previous 24 hours, the state on Thursday reported that 2,252 people were currently in hospitals statewide being treated for COVID, numbers which have been dropping (see above). DeWine has said the administration may remove the 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. curfew if numbers stay under 2,500 for 7 straight days as of Feb. 11.
COVID-19 sufferers occupy 8% of the state’s hospital beds.
There were 4,120 newly reported cases Thursday, bringing the total number of Ohioans who have been diagnosed with the virus to 910,847. The three-week average of new cases has declined to 4,931 and there are 92,941 active COVID-19 cases in Ohio, the lowest number since mid-November.
The 79 additional deaths brings the total number to 11,509. There have been 47,110 Ohioans who have been hospitalized.
The seven-day positivity rate has fallen to 7%.