Ohio Gov: 60 percent of nursing home staff elected not to take COVID-19 vaccine

About 60 percent of nursing home staff in Ohio have elected not to take the COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said Wednesday.

DeWine made the comment during a news briefing in which he was discussing the pace of vaccinations in the state.

The governor said he was not satisfied with the pace of vaccinations in the state.

“I’m not satisfied with where we are in Ohio,” DeWine said. “We’re not moving fast enough, but we’re going to get there, and we’re going to speed this thing up.”

DeWine said that nursing homes all get three visits for the vaccine. After the initial dose, those who received it will be given a second shot on the follow-up, and others who had not received their first shot will still get inoculated.

The third visit will be to complete vaccinations for those who received an initial dose.

“We’re not going to make them, but we wish we had a higher compliance,” DeWine said. “And our message today is, [the] train may not be coming back for a while.”

The governor said the state’s goal is to get the vaccine out as quickly as possible and is asking hospitals to administer doses within 24 hours of receiving them.

Ohio has only used 14.3 percent of its vaccine allotment as of Dec. 21, The Columbus Dispatch reported, citing data from Bloomberg. The relatively slow pace comes as the U.S. is experiencing a lag between the number of vaccines distributed and the number administered.

Moncef Slaoui, the head of Operation Warp Speed, recognized on Wednesday that the number of doses administered had been lower than what the Trump administration is aiming for.

The administration had previously touted that 20 million people would receive vaccinations by the end of the year.