COLUMBUS, Ohio — Because COVID-19 vaccinations at nursing homes have been shown to dramatically reduce cases and deaths in Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine announced a “COVID-19 Vaccine Maintenance Program” that will continue to make the vaccine available to staff and residents at nursing homes, even those who initially declined the vaccine.
“As part of our commitment to protecting those in our nursing homes, we also announced the COVID-19 vaccine maintenance program,” DeWine said, “basically, to continue, as people go in nursing homes, new residents come in, continuing to vaccinate them and make that vaccine available to nursing homes.”
DeWine said the vaccine would be available to new residents and staff, as well as those who didn’t want the vaccine before but changed their minds.
The governor said that since the state has begun vaccinating, with an initial focus on Ohio’s nursing homes, COVID hospitalizations in those over 80 have dropped form 25% in December to 18% this month.
Viewed as a snapshot of data, there were about 5,1000 nursing homes residents who had COVID-19 in a given week in December, versus about 1,000 last week, DeWine said. There were 2,832 new cases in nursing homes in a week in December, versus just 369 new cases last week.
