COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the state's push to vaccinate younger residents, including college-age and high school students over the age of 16.
Gov. DeWine announced an effort to distribute COVID-19 vaccinations at high schools across the state, for students over the age of 16 who may want to be vaccinated. In his press conference Monday, Gov. DeWine said he spoke with local health departments across the state, as he does every week, about reaching out to high schools across the state to set up vaccination clinics. Some health departments, DeWine said, have already begun securing doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination for those students.
"Again, our goal is the same as it frankly is with our college students, and that is to get as many of them vaccinated as we can before the summer starts," DeWine said Monday.
Pfizer is the only COVID-19 vaccination available that's been approved for emergency use in ages 16 and up.
Gov. DeWine also said that high school students under 18 would be required to have a permission slip signed in order to receive the vaccination at school.
Gov. DeWine and his wife Fran visited the Ohio State University's mass vaccination clinic at the Schottenstein Center on Monday. There, the governor and his wife spoke with college students who were getting their vaccinations, and told him about why they're doing it - everything from wanting to get back to normal, to those who were longing to see family and loved ones they'd been separated from during the pandemic.
"They're doing a really phenomenal job," DeWine said, of the mass vaccination clinic. He also mentioned he was impressed by the number of volunteers at each mass vaccination site.
You can watch Gov. DeWine's entire press conference in the player below.