© 2024 WOSU Public Media
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Ohio May Move COVID Vaccines Around To Meet Demand

A phial of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Royal Victoria Hospital, in Belfast, Tuesday Dec. 8, 2020.
Liam McBurney
/
Pool via AP
A phial of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Royal Victoria Hospital, in Belfast, Tuesday Dec. 8, 2020.

COVID vaccines are available to all Ohioans over 16 years old. But there are still reports of people having problems finding appointments near home.

At a shot clinic in Vinton County on Monday, Gov. Mike DeWine said the state may start moving shots around after it gets its next shipment of vaccines Tuesday.

DeWine said the formula for deciding how much vaccine each county gets has been mostly based on population, but there’s been some weight given to poverty and other factors.

But after a tour of clinics in rural Morgan, Monroe and Vinton Counties on Monday, DeWine said that, when the state knows how much vaccine it will have by Tuesday at noon, the supply can be shared throughout the state.

“We will know, for example, how much Johnson & Johnson is coming into the state, which is really the kind of the unknown variable. And then we’ll make, within the next several days after that, the allocation," DeWine said.

This week the state is expecting its biggest shipment of vaccine ever, more than 570,000 doses.

Shot clinics continue in the three biggest cities as well as Lima, Toledo, Dayton, Akron and Youngstown as well as smaller communities. Four mobile vaccine clinics are also planned.

Information on vaccine appointment scheduling is at gettheshot.coronavirus.ohio.gov.