COLUMBUS, Ohio — The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines has been delivered to Ohio, with a shipment from Pfizer arriving at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center Monday morning.
"This is an historic occasion. This is hope. This is the beginning of the end of the pandemic." In a tweet, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said, "These safe and effective vaccines are a crucial step on our path back to normal."
Other states are expecting shipments on Monday as well.
"These vaccines will allow our healthcare workers to continue to fight COVID-19 on the front lines to get us through the pandemic," DeWine said in a statement delivered Monday.
Wexner Medical Center and UC Health will each receive 975 doses of the vaccine on Monday. Those doses will go to frontline responders who are working every day with COVID-19 patients.
Eight other hospitals in the state will also receive 975 doses on Tuesday, according to the governor.
"This is a very exciting day for Ohio. It's the day that starts the process toward the end of the pandemic. The end is a long way off, but the end is in sight. Every day as we move forward from here, we'll see more and more people vaccinated," DeWine said.
How Ohio will distribute the vaccine
Emergency medical responders, health care workers and others caring for COVID-19 patients will be the to first receive Ohio's initial doses of the vaccine.
Vulnerable people who live together and those who care for them, such as nursing home and assisted facility residents and staffers, will be next.
Gov. DeWine said last week of the 98,000 Pfizer doses, more than 9,700 will go to hospitals, and more than 88,000 will go to Walgreen and CVS stores for distribution in group settings.
The 201,000 Moderna doses due by Dec. 22 will go to 98 hospitals dealing with COVID-19 patients, and the state's 108 public health departments for distribution to emergency medical responders and home health care aids.
On the same day, an additional 123,000 Pfizer doses will go to Walgreen and CVS.
The last shipment this year will go out a few days later, with tentatively 148,000 from Pfizer and 89,000 from Moderna.
Each vaccine calls for two doses.