CEDARVILLE, Ohio — During his COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced that some of the doses given by Walgreens to patients at five Northeast Ohio long-term care facilities were not properly stored.
Those patients who received the doses will have to be revaccinated.
"We learned this morning some vaccines given by Walgreens in five, long-term care facilities yesterday had not been stored under the proper cold storage conditions. These individuals will be revaccinated," DeWine explained.
The five facilities that are impacted are:
- Ashtabula Co Residential Services Corp "The Maples" in Kingsville
- Ashtabula Towers in Ashtabula
- Heather Hill Care Communities in Chardon
- Six Chimneys in East Cleveland
- Willow Park Convalescent Home in Cleveland
When reached for comment by 3News, Walgreens confirmed all of the potential bad doses were given out Monday at the facilities, with the issue apparently stemming from "mishandled temperatures" at their local vaccine distribution hub. Officials believe "a few hundred" shots were affected, but stressed the error was discovered "within hours."
"There's no reason to believe any patients who received these doses will suffer any harm," the company said in a statement.
"Our remedy for this situation is to identify which patients need to be revaccinated," Ohio Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff noted earlier. "Not everyone was impacted."
DeWine also announced that out of the 920 skilled nursing facilities in Ohio, the state has given the first dose in all of the facilities and have given the second dose in 89% of those facilities.
"We have 645 assisted living facilities with first doses in 86% of these facilities and second doses in 48%," DeWine added.
You can watch Tuesday's entire briefing in the player below:
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