As of Monday, Premier Health has distributed all of its first shipment of 5,900 coronavirus vaccines to health care workers.
Between Dec. 21 and Dec. 23, the hospital system received the initial shipment of the Moderna vaccine to Miami Valley Hospital campuses, Atrium Medical Center and Upper Valley Medical Center. Since Upper Valley Medical Center received the network’s first doses on Dec. 21, the hospital system has administered vaccines to workers every day, on the weekends and through the holidays, Premier spokesman Ben Sutherly said.
The hospital system also received 900 more doses of the Moderna vaccine during the week of Dec. 28 and 2,600 more doses last week.
Roberto Colon, the associate chief medical officer of Miami Valley Hospital, told the Dayton Daily News last week that this vaccine rollout is unprecedented and provides a lot of unique challenges.
“The goal for all of us is to be able to meet that ultimate desire to be able to get this out to everybody as fast as possible,” he said. “Looking back, there are things that we can learn from our vaccination process every single week. And we get faster and faster and faster for a process that is brand new.”
Kettering Health received its 9,400 doses between Dec. 22 and Jan. 4. It has six clinics vaccinating eligible employees.
“As Kettering Health Network receives more COVID-19 vaccines, our ability to administer the doses continues to improve,” said an emailed statement from Kettering Health. “For example, we are on track to vaccinate 50% more employees this week. We have a team of more than 150 people working on this process, helping to boost our efforts and optimize workflows to distribute the vaccine as quickly as possible.”
The Ohio Department of Health reported Monday afternoon that 304,976 Ohioans have received the first dose of the two-dose coronavirus vaccine regimen. That’s about 2.6% of Ohio’s population and about 30% of the 1 million Ohioans estimated to be in the first priority group for distribution (frontline health care workers, EMS personnel, and residents and staff at long-term care facilities).
Ohio is scheduled to begin vaccinating the second priority group (individuals over 65, school staff and people with severe medical conditions) next week. Gov. Mike DeWine said more details will be released Tuesday and local Emergency Management Agencies are being asked to hold a news conference later this week to give more details on where vaccines will be available in their county.
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