CEDARVILLE, Ohio — As hospitals across Ohio receive their first shipments of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Mike DeWine to gave an update on the state's coronavirus response Tuesday.
Some hospitals have already had their shipments delivered. The governor and Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine were in Springfield this morning to welcome the delivery of vaccine doses to Mercy Health Springfield Medical Center, while Lt. Gov. Jon Husted was at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus as they received their first 2,000 doses of the vaccine.
As the state's vaccination program continues, the Ohio Department of Health will soon launch a vaccination dashboard, similar to the coronavirus cases dashboard, where you can track how many people have been vaccinated across Ohio. Gov. DeWine says that tool will launch sometime later this week.
DeWine also announced Monday that the vaccine will soon be distributed to some Ohio nursing homes and care facilities, though he didn't specify which facilities would be receiving the doses.
"I'm also pleased to announce, today, that the CDC has invited Ohio to participate in early scale launch of vaccines in nursing homes," Governor DeWine said on Monday. He added, "We had been scheduled to start this on the twenty-first of the month — that would be Monday — Monday, December 21, in partnership with pharmacy providers. But, as part of this scaled approach, Ohio will begin vaccination in five-to-ten nursing homes, starting this Friday."
On this day, the governor said Ohio should receive more than 400,000 vaccine doses by Christmas, with even more set to come in before the new year. You can watch DeWine's entire press conference again in the player below:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is on track to approve a second coronavirus vaccine, from Moderna, by the end of the week.
