Ohioans with disabilities, severe medical disorders eligible for COVID vaccine next week

“Next week, we will open vaccinations for those Ohioans with severe congenital, developmental or early-onset medical disorders who make them particularly vulnerable and who have a developmental or intellectual disability,” Gov. Mike DeWine announced Tuesday during a press briefing.

Also starting next week, Ohioans 75 and older will be eligible for vaccination.

To be eligible for vaccines beginning next week, Ohioans must have a developmental or intellectual disability and one of the following conditions:

- Cerebral Palsy

- Spina bifida

- Severe congenital heart disease

- Severe type 1 diabetes that required hospitalization in past year

- Inherited metabolic disorders, including phenylketonuria

- Severe neurological disorders such as epilepsy, hydrocephaly and microcephaly

- Severe genetic disorders, such as Downs syndrome, fragile X syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, Turner syndrome and muscular dystrophy

- Severe lung disease, including cystic fibrosis and asthma that required hospitalization in past year

- Sickle cell anemia

- Alpha and beta thalassemia

- Solid organ transplants

Anyone who is eligible can contact their local county disabilities board to coordinate receiving the vaccine.

In three weeks, starting Feb. 15, Ohioans with the same conditions but without developmental or intellectual disabilities will be eligible, DeWine said. More details will be released closer to that date, the governor said.