‘This is a rush,’ DeWine says Ohio on pace for May 1 goal for all adults to be eligible for shots

Gov. Mike DeWine said he believes Ohio is on pace to meet President Joe Biden’s deadline to have vaccines available to all adults by May 1.

“Best I can tell, we are on track to do that,” DeWine said during a press conference Friday morning. “We are going to move forward. Make it available as quickly as we can.”

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DeWine also talked about when he thinks Ohio could start to return to normal.

“We certainly could be out of this in seven to eight weeks,” DeWine said, cautioning that the variants will play a key role in defeating the virus.

“It’s more contagious and that’s really the one dark cloud that’s out there,” DeWine said. “It just creates, I think an even more urgency sense that we want to get people vaccinated as quickly as we can.”

DeWine said after speaking with health officials this morning it appears many of the vaccine clinics are filling up quickly after the state expanded vaccines to those 50 and older yesterday.

“What we’re seeing is a very quick filling up of the slots,” DeWine said, adding that he expects that to continue for about a week before signups slow again. “This is a process it’s going to continue.”

Locally, signups at Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County were not filling up as quickly as they have in previous age brackets on Friday morning. Online, 4,800 doses of vaccine were available and 2.5 hours after registration opened only about 800 doses had been signed up for.

The Governor said the state has been averaging about 40,000 to 60,000 vaccinations each day across the state. Thursday was a record day for the state, when almost 72,000 shots were given.

DeWine said he expects the state to reach 2.2 million Ohioans with at least one dose of vaccine on Friday.

Cox Media Group