“(This is) very exciting for our community,” said Dr. Jeremy Moore, an emergency medical physician at Miami Valley Hospital who received the shot. “It’s been a long year treating a lot of sick patients and you always worry about taking it home to your family. So (this vaccine) offers hope and maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Mike Uhl, president of Miami Valley Hospital, said Premier Health’s goal is to vet the first dose to all its health care workers by the end of January.
Both Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County and Miami County Public Health received their first shipments of coronavirus vaccines early Tuesday.
Area health departments plan to begin vaccinating emergency medical service workers and home healthcare personnel this week.
Montgomery County received 3,100 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Moderna, and Miami County received 400 doses. Greene County Public Health received 300 doses on Monday.
EMS workers for the Dayton Fire Department will begin receiving the first dose of the two-dose vaccine regimen on Thursday, Christmas Eve, said Capt. Brad French.
“It’s definitely a sigh of relief for a lot of the members,” he said. “Our medic units transport COVID positive patients virtually every day, and there’s a tremendous amount of exposure.”
While the city is not requiring employees to get vaccinated, French said he expects most members to voluntarily get the shot.
“Because we have trusted medical resources that recommend that that’s the thing to do, including our medical director, Dr. Randy Mariott … and he himself is going to be getting the vaccine,” French said.
This initial shipment is not enough to cover every Montgomery County resident in the first priority group, but Public Health expects regular weekly shipments, said spokesperson Dan Suffoletto.
At least 8,453 Ohioans have received the first dose of a two-dose coronavirus vaccine regimen, according to data released Tuesday afternoon by the Ohio Department of Health. That’s about 0.07% of Ohio’s population and about 0.7% of the 1 million to 1.3 million people ODH estimates are in Phase 1A of distribution.
Also Tuesday, the Ohio Department of Health announced more vaccine shipments. A shipment of 89,700 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will arrive on Dec. 24, an increase of 19,500 more than was previously expected. An additional 69,700 Moderna doses will arrive later this week. These shipments will go to hospitals that have not received vaccinations from the first allocation.
ODH is also rolling out a program that will provide face masks for older Ohioans. Five masks will be sent to the 2.1 million senior Ohioans through the 10 Million Mask Mailer, a project formed by the Ohio Department of Aging and Ohio Department of Health with support from the Ohio Department of Administrative Services. Funding for the masks was provided by CARES Act funds.
