CLEVELAND — On Sunday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine provided details ahead of the "soft launch" of the mass vaccination clinic at Cleveland State University's Wolstein Center.
The eight-week mass vaccination clinic has the capacity to administer as many as 6,000 COVID-19 vaccines a day, but Gov. DeWine says that the Wolstein Center will not begin with the maximum number.
DeWine told reporters during the conference that on Tuesday, March 17, the Wolstein Center will conduct a "soft launch" to vaccinate roughly 1,500 people. It will then slowly ramp up over time, with the Governor estimating that by the following Monday, March 22, reaching the full 6,000 individuals per day.
The goal, DeWine says, is not just to get shots in people's arms, but also to provide community outreach and vaccinate underserved populations.
"We want to get the vaccines out into the community where people are not getting it and should be getting it," said Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish.
In terms of the actual vaccines that people who have appointments at the Wolstein Center will be getting, there is a plan for that too.
The first three weeks of the eight-week run, Pfizer vaccines will be used. This will then continue into weeks four through six, and these weeks will be specifically used to provide the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine to those who received the first shot in weeks one through three.
Finally, during weeks seven and eight, the Wolstein Center will administer Johnson and Johnson shots- a total of 84,000 doses, resulting in a whopping 210,000 Ohioans receiving the vaccine over the course of the eight weeks.
DeWine also announced that as of Sunday, more than 2.3 million Ohioans have received their first dose of the COVID-10 vaccine- about a fifth of all Ohioans.
Editor's note: the video in the player below is from a story published on March 12, 2021.