Greene County Public Health Provides Vaccination Update

Phase 1A Ongoing; Phase 1B To Begin The Week of Jan. 19, 2021 Pending Vaccine Availability

GREENE COUNTY, OH -- In conjunction with Ohio’s statewide efforts to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to Ohioans in Phase 1B starting the week of January 19, Greene County Public Health (GCPH) officials and the Greene County Emergency Management Agency (GCEMA) are partnering to lead the vaccination efforts. The combined knowledge and decades of training will allow these agencies to continue to serve our local community as we work to vaccinate Ohioans in our community. 

Vaccination to individuals in the Phase 1A groups are currently ongoing. These groups include healthcare providers, individuals with developmental disabilities and those with mental health/substance use disorders who live in group homes and residential facilities and staff at those centers, as well as EMS.

Public Health is not providing vaccination to hospital workers or those who live or work in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. Those vaccinations are being provided by hospital systems and by local pharmacies.

Governor DeWine recently announced plans for the state to begin rolling out Phase 1B beginning the week of Tuesday, January 19, pending vaccine shipments and availability. Below is the breakdown of the phase by date:

1. Week of January 18: Individuals age 80 and older can be vaccinated

2. Week of January 25: Individuals ages 75 and older can be vaccinated, along with individuals with severe congenital, developmental, and early onset medical disorders.

3. Week of February 1: Individuals ages 70 and older can be vaccinated, along with K-12 schoolteachers and staff only for schools which elect to be in person or offer a hybrid model by March 1.

4. Week of February 8: Individuals age 65 and older can be vaccinated.     

According to Noah Stuby, Deputy Health Commissioner for GCPH, “Our partnership with GCEMA and years of professional training, developing plans, and preparations make us uniquely qualified to lead this effort in the community. It is important that residents have the most up-to-date information available to make their own educated decision about getting vaccinated”. Rosanne Anders, Director of GCEMA agrees “Once our residents have the facts about the vaccine, it is our hope they will receive the vaccine to protect their health and that of their family members, friends and neighbors”. These agencies remind residents that the roll out of this phase will be very slow due to limited vaccine availability.

There are well over 26,000 Greene County residents ages 65 and older (not including those in congregate care, i.e. nursing homes, covered by the federal pharmacy plan) that would be eligible to receive vaccine in Phase 1B. There are also approximately 3,000 teachers and staff in our Greene County school districts that could be vaccinated beginning February 1 pending each district’s plan to be in a hybrid or in-person learning model by March 1. Please understand that Phase 1B will take some time, considering the limited amount of vaccine being shipped to Greene County each week. Moving forward, there will be multiple agencies providing vaccinations, including physicians, hospitals, in-home health service providers, as well as some retail pharmacies, but again, vaccines will be extremely limited. In addition, a statewide vaccine provider search is available beginning January 14 at coronavirus.ohio.gov/vaccine to search for providers in the Greene County area. 

In order to make it easy to know when you can get your vaccine from Greene County Public Health, please visit https://healthalert.gcph.info/COVID19/signup and click on Phase 1A (blue box) or Phase 1B (purple box). You will then be notified by public health officials when and where there is a GCPH vaccine clinic available for you to receive the vaccine. This is not for any other local providers that may be offering vaccine, only those vaccines provided by GCPH.

Public Health officials will announce additional information on new phases as information becomes available through the local news media, our social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GreeneCoPH and our website www.gcph.info. Public Health asks for patience as we work through the Phase 1A and 1B priority groups.

For updates on the vaccination process, visit: www.healthalert.gcph.info/COVID19 or www.coronavirus.ohio.gov and click on COVID-19 Vaccination Program. For information about the vaccines currently available, visit https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines.html