OHIO — Gov. Mike DeWine was one of six governors that met virtually with President Joe Biden at Tuesday to go over COVID-19 vaccine distribution and solutions on how to get more people vaccinated.
In Ohio and other states like Connecticut, South Carolina and North Carolina, officials have been seeing a challenge when it comes to increasing the vaccination rate. As of Monday, 35% of Ohio’s population has been fully vaccinated, according to the Ohio Department of Health (ODH).
DeWine told Biden Ohio is “at the ground game now,” urging residents to get vaccinated.
“I think you’re seeing governors, you know, continue to push out and go to where people are,” DeWine said. “We have some health departments (that) are literally out… knocking on doors.”
Ohio had to allocate 20% of its doses to the federal pool after seeing decreased demand for the shots.
“Ohio has ordered 65,370 new first doses to arrive in the state this week, in addition to doses allocated to federal partners in Ohio,” said ODH spokesperson Alicia Shoults in a statement Monday. “Vaccine is precious. Many providers in Ohio have adequate vaccine supply on-hand, and requested that additional doses not be shipped to them the week of May 10.”
The U.S. Federal Drug Administration’s (FDA) granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine Monday to 12- to 15-year-olds, and DeWine said he believes it will help improve the state’s vaccination rate. However, he told Biden he noticed a desire for the Johnson & Johnson single-shot dose across the state.
“There certainly has been a appetite for the Johnson & Johnson. We’re seeing people who really want Johnson & Johnson. They want that one shot, and to be done. There also clearly was an appetite for walk up clinics,” DeWine said.
DeWine told NPR Tuesday morning that he believed the partial reason for the slow up in vaccinations was because of the Johnson & Johnson pause. In mid-April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA asked distributors to stop giving out the vaccine after six people reported cases of a rare blood condition that created blood clots shortly after receiving the vaccine.
Federal officials lifted the pause on April 24, saying the benefits outweight the risk and there was no direct correlation.
DeWine said nearly 25% of children 16-17 are vaccinated in Ohio. He said the state will immediately expand vaccine eligibility to 12- to 15-year-olds as soon as Wednesday. At least one Ohio health department has already begun offering vaccine appointments for kids 12-15 starting Thursday.
Biden has a goal to get 70% of U.S. adults vaccinated by July 4, but DeWine said at a press conference last week that he’s not sure if that’s doable, saying around 55% may be a better target for the state.
“I’m on the phone every Monday morning for 45 minutes with every one of our health departments, and I learn a lot. They tell us what they need, what we can do to help them (and) we try to get them right away whatever they need,” DeWine said.
The president also met with govenors from Utah, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota and New Mexico.
Pete Grieve contributed to this story.
