COLUMBUS – School officials in Ohio whose staff can be vaccinated against the coronavirus next week have been notified and information is being sent out Friday to the rest of the state’s districts, which are set to begin receiving vaccinations Feb. 8 after as part of a plan to resume in-person learning on March 1.
School district employees in Franklin and Delaware counties, including Columbus City Schools, Hilliard, Dublin and the Olentangy Local Schools, begin getting COVID vaccinations Monday. Gov. Mike DeWine says the state intends to vaccinate most K-12 staff in a county within seven days of their assigned vaccination start date.
“Our goal is to vaccinate anybody who’s in that school, in that school building with students, anybody in that school should be able to get vaccinated,” he said during his regular Thursday coronavirus briefing.
Every public school district in the state, except for one, has agreed to resume in-person learning by March 1, which was a requirement for staff to have early access to the vaccine, DeWine said.
Schools whose staff can be vaccinated starting Monday have already been notified and all remaining schools will be contacted Friday with information on when their K-12 staff will be permitted to receive a vaccine.
DeWine says the plan ensures that the maximum number of people can be vaccinated in the shortest amount of time while making the process as simple as possible. for staff to be vaccinated and is organized to allow to be vaccinated.
DeWine acknowledges that all workers will not receive their second vaccine dose by March 1 but Ohio Department of Health medical director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff says even the first shot helps boost the body’s immune system.
Monday is also the day Ohioans 70 and older will be eligible to receive vaccines.
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Franklin County Public Health received 1,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine but all appointments for the agency’s two clinics scheduled for Feb. 4 and 5 at 1700 Morse Road have been filled. Residents are being told to check back next week at the department’s website for updates.
Due to a limited number of vaccine doses, the Licking County Health Department on Thursday suspended taking appointments for next week.
The state has vaccinated 706,017 people, about 6% of the total population.
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Over 5,400 new cases of COVID-19 were reported Thursday, below the three-week rolling average, and for the third straight day the state reported fewer than 3,000 people in the hospital with the virus.
Ohio crossed a milestone Thursday with over 11,000 residents having died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. There were 75 newly reported deaths, bringing the total to 11,006.
There were 256 hospital admissions with 2,829 patients being treated for COVID-19 in Ohio, 10.29% of the total number of available beds.
The state’s seven-day positivity rate fell to 8% and the number of active cases declined to 108,230.