CINCINNATI — During a primetime nationwide address on Thursday, President Joe Biden announced his plan to make all adults in the country eligible for the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine by May 1.
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Asked about Biden's plan on Friday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said that at this point, there's no reason to believe that the Buckeye State won't be able to do just that.
"As far as President Biden's speech last night, where he talked about the goal of by May 1, vaccines being available to every U.S. citizen, as best I can tell, we are on track to do that," DeWine told reporters during a visit to the COVID-19 vaccination site at Riverview House, a senior living facility in Cincinnati, Friday morning. "We're going to move forward, make it available as quickly as we can."
On Thursday, Ohio began phase 1D and 2B of its COVID-19 vaccine distribution, making it available to every adult in the state 50-years-old and older and those with type 2 diabetes. In entering its new stage of distribution, 1.2 million more Ohioans are now eligible to receive the vaccine.
"Now I checked this morning and you know we opened up [vaccine eligibility] to people 50 years of age and older yesterday and what we're seeing is a very quick filling up of the slots," DeWine said. "So those are going to be really full for the next week or so. Then I suspect they will start loosening up some. What we want to do is kind of be in that sweet spot where we're not wasting doses, we're getting doses out as fast as we can, but at the same time, we have a situation where people have the opportunity to register.
"This is a process and it's going to continue."
DeWine didn't provide a specific date for when he anticipated all residents in the state being eligible for the vaccine. On Friday, Michigan announced that all residents 16-years-old and older will become vaccine-eligible on April 5.
You can watch Gov. DeWine's full press briefing from Thursday in the video player below.