The first shipments of the vaccine left Michigan on Sunday. Mercy Health – Springfield Chief Operating Officer Chris Howe said Sunday the medical center was “preparing,” to receive the vaccine.
Vaccines will first be given to high-risk hospital personnel, then next week, the health district will begin giving the vaccine Emergency Management Service (EMS) personnel and large pharmacy chains will vaccinate staff and residents of long-term care facilities, Clark County Combined Health District Commissioner Charles Patterson said. This is in line with vaccine rollout plans from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Ohio Department of Health
SRMC is one of 10 locations across the state to receive the first shipments of the Pfizer vaccine. Locations were selected based on population, geography and access to ulta-cold storage capacity, ODH said previously.
Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus and UC Health in Cincinnati were the first two hospitals in the state to receive and administer the vaccine on Monday morning.
Patterson said the health district has gotten “a ton,” of calls from residents wanting to “be added to the waitlist,” for the vaccine when it becomes available to the general public.
“There, unfortunately, will not be vaccines available for the general public until after the first of the year,” Patterson said.
And when vaccines are ready for the general public, the health district won’t have a waiting list, Patterson said. Instead, vaccines will be on a “first-come-first-serve basis.”
“There won’t be a ‘put my name on the waiting list because I want it.’ There’s just no way for us to manage that list,” Patterson said. “When we have it available, we will announce it and there will be either an online link or a phone number where people can call to schedule an appointment for their vaccine.”
As of now, vaccine roll-out to all county residents will be a partnership between the health district and “the large chain pharmacies,” Patterson said.
“Most likely it will be local health district, but eventually when there is plenty of vaccine, when supply exceeds demand, then I believe it will be moving into retail pharmacies where everyone can go get a shot whenever they want to,” Patterson said.
Patterson said while Clark County and the state likely have “a couple more months of keeping our guard up,” meaning residents will continue to be asked to wear a mask, social distance and stay away for people outside of their households — the rollout of the vaccine is extremely exciting.
“We can finally see that light at the end of the tunnel. That light maybe six months off to be clearly out of the tunnel, but every vaccine we give gets us one step closer to getting out of the tunnel,” Patterson said. “That’s exciting and we need a little positive excitement.”
Clark County had 7,547 cases, 182 deaths and five probable deaths of the coronavirus as of Monday, according to ODH. Champaign County had 1,516 cases, eight deaths and four probable deaths.
Between Sunday and Monday, the state recorded 7,875 new cases and 59 new deaths, according to ODH. It was the first time since Dec. 6 that the state dropped under 8,000 daily cases. Last week, the state reported more than 10,000 cases for five straight days.
In total, Ohio reported 570,602 cases and 7,551 deaths on Monday, according to ODH.
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