CEDARVILLE, Ohio — At his press briefing on Wednesday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine stressed the need for urgency as it relates to the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine.
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"We can't control how fast the vaccine comes into the state of Ohio," DeWine said. "And we know there's a scarcity. We know that we have two streams coming in; we have Pfizer, Moderna. We hope those streams get wider as the weeks go on and we certainly hope there are more streams that are coming on. More drug companies that will develop vaccines that are ready to go.
"While we can't control how much comes in every week, we certainly can control how fast that we get it out. And that is incumbent upon all of us Ohioans to make sure it gets out just as fast as we can get it out. It is a life-saver."
To that end, Gov. DeWine said that he had a call with the CEOs of Ohio's hospitals on Wednesday in which he asked Ohio's hospitals to do everything in their power to get their vaccine doses distributed within 24 hours of receiving them. Additionally, Gov. DeWine urged the hospitals to quickly report their vaccination distributions back to the state so that it can properly update its public dashboards.
"We're asking 24 hours to get it in, 24 hours after that to get it reported," Gov. DeWine said.
While DeWine noted that won't always be possible for various reasons, he continued to stress that urgency is of the utmost importance -- for both those distributing the coronavirus vaccine and those who are receiving it.
You can watch Gov. DeWine's full press briefing in the video player below.