949,695 cases in Ohio; 394,687 in Kentucky; 653,245 in Indiana

on this day when there is snow all the way across Ohio are pretty much all Ohio. It's good to think of spring, one of the first indicators that spring is coming. Eyes spring training. Yesterday, pitchers and catchers reported for spring training. So I'm wearing the Cleveland Indians Face Mask and the Reds. Thailand actually were in the Thai for my dad. Uh, this is my dad's birthday would have been his 98 birthday, and one of things that he thought was really neat is that most years when he was growing up, Andi even later pitchers and catchers reported for spring training on his birthday on the 18th today eso this year. It's one day, one day early, but we think of my dad a lot, and I imagine him down in spring training in Sarasota watching his, uh, reds that he loves so much, drinking a beer and, you know, eating a hot dog so good thought at least a good thought for our family on this cold and very wintry day. Speaking of winter start, we are talking about the winter weather that has hit us this past week. Most of our county spent time under snow emergency over the last few days are southernmost tip. Lawrence County was hit particularly hard, and they remain hit hard. We have some photos that came to us from Rome Township that show the situation that they faced to severe ice storms one last Thursday. Another overnight Sunday into Monday brought down trees and caused widespread power outages throughout the county. In response to this yesterday, I declared a state of emergency in Lawrence County. This allows our state agencies to respond to assist local authorities and getting the power back on and the roads cleared. R Ohio Emergency Management Agency is coordinating the effort in the Ohio State Highway Patrol. They're aviation division has helped doing flyovers to see exactly what the damage has been. What we know is that hundreds of trees air down across the county, maybe thousands, and they're getting the way of utility crews. They're trying to fix the power lines. The trees were also blocking many roadways, and so the Ohio Department of Transportation has been down there clearing these roads. When they finished the, uh, state roads where we have primary responsibility, they will continue and work on county roads and other roads anywhere. Where o dot could be of help we have with us. How? Department Transportation Director Jack Marsh Banks, director. Tell us what's going on in Lawrence County. Oh, a director. I think you're muted, Director. I think you're muted. All right. All right, You're on now, Director, you got it. Thank you, Governor. Thank you for your leadership. Happy to report that conditions have significantly improved in Lawrence County. Oh, dot Brought in crews from neighboring Galya Jackson and up, uh, Toyota County. And because of their work, U S highways and state routes are now open to traffic. We have also been working with the Ohio Department of Natural Resource is and therefore street division. They have brought in four crews, and we're expecting more assistance. O'Dowd, along with O. D. N. R. Has removed hundreds of trees that allow the utilities to come in and restore power. We'll continue to work around the clock removing snow and ice until we emerge from this winter storm this weekend, when things hopefully will warm up on Sunday. Great Director. Thank you very much. Thanks for that report on. We're really thinking about our friends in Lawrence County. the vaccinations. Many of them have been postponed. We would just advise people to stay in touch with their pharmacy or where they were going to get that vaccine. Lawrence County Health Departments clinics were canceled yesterday, today and tomorrow, but we're told that everyone who had a schedule appointment will receive a call to reschedule. The county tells US pharmacies in the area that have vacancies. Excuse me that pharmacies that have vaccines are moving forward with their appointments. If you have an appointment at the pharmacy, it's best to call ahead, though, ensure that they're running on on schedule. Let me talk for a moment now about vaccine shipment delays across across the state. Interestingly, despite all the delays I noticed on our dashboard today that just came out. We had over 29,000. 1st doses were delivered yesterday in 28002nd doses, so some of those may have been a little lag in reporting. But that's what we were showing and s o that z not bad. Considering the situation, vaccine shipments in Ohio across the country, unfortunately continue to be delayed. Ohioans with vaccine appointments this week should not only check the road conditions, but they should also confirmed your appointment has in fact not been canceled. Uh, these providers that had to change or cancel appointments are contacting patients by, however, means they can buy by phone or other ways. If you have not heard from your provider, you're concerned about whether or not your appointment still scheduled. Please contact your provider because of the weather delays. Our expectation is that providers will continue to get vaccinations, and so our goal always for providers is thio. Get them out in people's arms, Justus. Quickly as possible on. So for the providers that have been delayed, we would ask you to reschedule those very quickly. We would hope that you would be able to accomplish this over the weekend, Uh, certainly, or in or into Monday. So the faster you could get those in people's arms, obviously the better. But we know that some of you have been delayed several days and getting the vaccine. So this is something we're just gonna have to work through like a great part of the country is, in fact, working through. Let me go to Canfield in October, we asked community leaders in each county to put a group together of local citizens, uh, drawn from all kinds of different walks of life to really tackle the Kobe. They moved from focusing on wearing mask and distancing. And they're still, of course, doing that. But now, of course, getting people the vaccine is something that they're they're certainly working. Working on these air are Covad defense teams, commissioners, mayors, local hospital leaders, for example. And we've just been very, very impressed, frankly, by the work that many of them have been doing. Eso joining us from Canfield is Mayor Richard Duffy It and also Count Canfield local school District Superintendent Joe Knoll. Uh, good afternoon to both of you. Tell us, uh, tell us a little bit about this response team and how you pulled people together and how it's working out. Well, thank you very much, Governor DeWine, for your strong leadership against this vexing virus. When you put out the request for mayors to get together, we called 25 of the top leaders in the city, which we call our state rep. Are, which is Mr Catriona, our health commissioner or health Commissioner for former mayors. Three superintendents, uh, four judges or police chief or fire chief, And we assemble them all within a week from your calling outside or gazebo spread out. And we decided to, uh, put formed three committees Education Committee, a communications committee and a recognition of rewards to reinforce good mass behavior, social distancing. And we made videos. And so far, so good are our superintendent Noel is the head of the education Committee. He researches, provides a communication committee with the message. And then our recognition rewards goes throughout the city, businesses and people that are doing well. And we reward them. He does our chief of police. Well, that's great. Sounds like you really pulled a diverse group of people together. And that is that is great. Mr. Superintendent, Hope you're doing well. Tell us a little bit from your angle how things were going. Well, thank you, Governor. Welcome to Canfield. First of all, it's a pleasure out there today, but can be there in person. Virtually, uh, awesome as well. Um, I just want to talk a little bit about how we're doing here at school. Um, you know, when I got here in August as the new superintendent, Canfield, the first thing we took a look at was your reset and restart materials, you know, from your office O D H and O. D. And we realized we had some work to do here in Canfield. So we spent some money. We bought some student dividers. We bought some temperature scanners, hand sanitizers, our county commissioners, and a township gave us some dollars for hand washing stations and a UV sanitation lights to put in the rooms. You know, if we had a positive case, but really, the big prevention piece for us here in cancel was masking. And I applaud your effort to say, Hey, we're gonna wear a mask in schools. We're gonna do that in Canfield one way or the other anyway. But this mass that I'm wearing and the mayor has was kind of way to kind of get that whole process going. We need additional staff. We hired people to help us on. Our bus is to clean at night and in between routes and to help us in the school day. Um, the second big piece has been our stakeholders, Governor. I mean, as you know, this is all the team effort. Our parents are our first line of defense. We asked them to assess the kids before they leave home temperatures. If kids weren't feeling good, keep him at home. Call us if there is a positive case or a close contact. Our students have been great. They followed all protocols. They want to be here, and that's important. So they've done a great job. But as you have said before, as a superintendent, if you don't have staff, you can't run the schools. And our staff's been awesome. Following all the protocols and doing above and beyond, we took it. The phase two governor hearing can feel things were getting a little, uh, little dicey. So we went to phase two operations. Stay open. Canfield. It was just for our staff. Six. Feets great. But 8 to 10 ft sometimes is better. We tried to spread out in the lunch rooms. Um, and I told my administrative team anything we could do with technology to replicate meetings. Let's do that instead of face to face. Let's do everything virtually so, Um, Governor, it's been hand to hand combat. It's been day to day, but every day that we're in person learning is a blessing and It's been really good hearing. Can't feel well. Mr. Superintendent, I want to congratulate you and the other super intense across this state. Uh, but not just you, your teams. Uh, this has really been a team effort, and I think you all have done a great job. I think your students have done a great job. Parents, um this has been, you know, a really a great great effort. Eso Thank you for for your hard work, Mr Mayor. Thank you for working so hard on this and both of you trying toe, you know, pull the community together. This is, uh there's no substitute for pulling together. Excuse me. Locally. Um, that's, you know, so much more effective than anything else the state could do. The federal government can dio were local, local state, and we like it that way. And thank you for pulling together. So, Mayor and Mrs Superintendent again, congratulations to both of you. And thanks for joining us. And maybe I'll see the Canfield fair next year. So this year, we hope next year. This year we hope so. Way. Thank you. We appreciate it. This morning we launched the cova 19 vaccine maintenance program for nursing homes and assisted living facilities. And one things we've been proud of is that initially we went right into nursing homes, first shot and second shot, same thing with or assisted living. But now we're approaching the time when we know that we have to continue to get vaccine into these nursing homes because there may be new hires, new employees, air coming in. There's certainly a new residents who are coming in on DSO. That is something that our director of aging director McIlroy has has been working on. And I know director, you're working on that today and you want just give us a kind of a little report about how that's that's working and that working with the nursing homes and assisted living and where we're going from from here Absolutely Thank you, sir. And if you recall in the morning of December 18th, we were together when Ohio administer the very first shot. There is part of the National Pharmacy Partnership for Long term care program, and now that we're getting close to rounding up all three rounds of those clinics, we certainly didn't want to lose. The momentum of vaccinators are long term here, residents and staff. And so we've created Ohio being vaccine maintenance program on a regular basis. Facilities will be able to enroll in the program and let us know what their needs are. Do they need to host the vaccine clinic for their residents and staff this Skippy for new hires, new residents or maybe just those who have recently decided that the vaccine is the right choice for them? We hosted a webinar this morning with the Ohio Department of Aging department, held the state of Ohio Board of Pharmacy and one of the larger pharmacy networks representing many pharmacies across the country. And together we laid out the program for Ohio's nursing homes and assisted living facilities. There were more than 1000 facility leaders in attendance. In fact, we had to move some over to the virtual overflow, and we have received a lot of positive feedback and some great questions, especially some around the facility and pharmacy partnerships. Into that point, we're trying to match facilities with the pharmacy of their choice. If the logistics work meaning they can store vaccine safely, it's important to note that we anticipate there will be a federal program in the upcoming weeks. But we wanted to ensure continuity of care between the first federal program and the availability of vaccines to all residents and staff. And because the state had already coordinated the covert testing program and facilities, us moving to the vaccine program was a pretty natural progression and one that we felt was important to support. It will mean less waste, more coordination, more access and more strategic distribution. So we look forward to updating you and the citizens of Ohio after the first month of clinics take place. So, director, I think, maybe, to explain to people every nursing home has a pharmacy company that's serving them that is bringing whatever medicine is needed into that nursing home. And so I think our concept, basically simplistically is plugging into them, working with them. They already have that relationship with the with the with the nursing home or assisted living. Is that that correct? Close to it anyway? No, you're absolutely right. We wanted to build upon those relationships that already exists, So if you have a channel that exists, it's natural. It's easy, it's easy to follow, and so we're building upon those relationships and and where perhaps we may have, maybe a facility in the relationship with the pharmacy. Maybe if it doesn't exist, we're gonna be there to coordinate so that there is not one facility left out. And let me just say to everyone who has a loved one in a nursing home or assisted living or somebody just got there. Uh, we're focused on making sure that they have the vaccine. So if they did not have the vaccine before they were admitted to the nursing home, you know, within the next week or so, we want them to be able to get that vaccine. I would also say Thio anybody who? When way went through the first time. Second time, third time. And they said, No, I don't want a vaccine and we would just tell them that now they again we'll have an opportunity to get that vaccine so we would hope they would rethink it staff, but also residents. We would love for everybody in every nursing home who works there, everybody who who lives there to have the vaccine and we're making it gonna make that available again, and it's just very important that more and more people in our nursing homes. We've seen a dramatic dramatic drop in cases in our nursing homes, and we're very happy about that. But we just want to continue to keep keep driving those those numbers down because we know that over half the people who have died in Ohio of covert have died coming out of out of the nursing homes. Director, let me quickly just goto one other issue you and I talked a lot about and we were on been on the phone this past week about and we're gonna finish up in the next few days, I hope, and that is something that we could ask a lot about and that is visitation in nursing homes. We have visitation now, But with the vaccine coming into the nursing homes and a better understanding of the mask and other things, we hope to come out next week, latter part of next week, probably with some more guidance for the nursing home. So I know if you wanna mention anything about that, we'll save that till next week until we get everything completely ready to go. But any comments you wanna make on that? Yeah, I'm just um, I just want to short people that we're constantly evaluating this, having the right conversations, looking at the right things, um, not only with our colleagues or appears in the medical community social services community, but also with the federal government. So there are a lot of layers to this, but when you get down to it, we want to connect people as quickly as possible and as safely as possible. So I look forward to having this conversation next week so that people understand what their options are and the progress that we're making. So we'll continue to balance worry about the Koven coming in. But we're a different time now, So we also know that people could really be hurt, who are in nursing homes or assisted living who could not have contact. You know that's a problem. We've had guidance since July. I believe in regard to you know what was allowed, what was not. We're revisiting that again, and we'll lay that out again. We hope a week from today. So, Director, Thank you. Thank you very much. One of our goals in getting the vaccine out, of course, is equity fairness. And in many ways geographically a Sfar as race as's faras underserved populations Because of poverty, all of these things air very, very important. And so this is a plea from me, uh, to our providers, directly to every provider in the state, whether it be the pharmacy, whether it be a hospital, whether it be one of the one of the clinics health departments. Please, please, please make sure that data gets in there in regard to the individual who you are, in fact, vaccinating. That is the Onley way. It's not the only way. But it is a way that we can see if we're missing people for missing groups. We just need to continue to drill down on that and look at that, For example, Um, in phase one B, we need to know if people are getting this because of age. Uh, if they follow in that cattle, are they getting it because they're a teacher or work in a school? Um or are they in our special group of at risk people with early onset health conditions? Uh, with intellectual or developmental disabilities or, uh, or if they're in our special group of at risk people with early onset health conditions who do not have intellectual or developmental disabilities. Eso these air just different categories on just very important. Having this data helps us understand administration or uptake rates among specific communities or occupations, and also helps inform future policy and allocation decisions. Data accuracy is key to measuring results. It's a requirement, really, for all of our providers. So again, we expect our providers to do this and to make sure this information is in there and is in fact correct. This this week, um, vaccine eligibility opened up to Ohioans born with or who have early childhood conditions that are carried into adulthood, which put them in a higher risk for asked adverse outcomes due to Kobe. 19. So we did this for several weeks with people who fit that criteria with intellectual developmental disabilities. Now we've added people without those disabilities. So anybody who fits this this criteria, um and so we just would ask our providers if someone comes in and they have one of these conditions, they have every right to get the vaccine. Um, we're seeing, for example, we've we've heard complaints with people who have cystic cystic fibrosis who have been turned away. That is not right. Those individuals should be able to get their vaccination. So let me turn it over now to our chief medical officer, Dr Bruce Vanderhof. Really to kind of go over these conditions again because we wanna make sure everyone understands what what these conditions are. Because this is something that is new on. We're asking our providers. Put this up on your Web page. But also, when someone comes in and fits one of those conditions, they have the right to get that vaccine, even though they may not be, uh, 65 years of age or older. Doctor. Yes, Thank you, Governor. Eso I'll go through this list very briefly. First, you'll recall that on the list we begin with sickle cell anemia That's an inherited disorder of red blood cells. These patients face many challenges, including severe pain episodes, stroke and organ damage. We have down syndrome on the list, which I think is fairly well understood and recognized by the public. Cystic fibrosis, which the governor mentioned. That's a hereditary disease that affects the lungs and digestive system. And these patients tend to have a shorter lifespan. Muscular dystrophy, thes air inherited conditions that damage or weakened muscles over time. Three. Brel palsy disorders that affect a person's ability to move and maintain balance and posture. Spina bifida. That's a birth defect that occurs when the spine and spinal cord don't form properly. People with severe heart defects requiring ongoing medical care. So again, this refers to those with heart defects, but who still require regular care from their heart doctor. So this wouldn't include the many Ohioans who had heart surgery is a young child that worked very well, and they're now doing very well and don't see their doctor regularly. People with Type one diabetes who've been hospitalized in the past year. This category refers to those individuals who have a kind of diabetes that generally begins early in life. Andi requires insulin, not the kind of diabetes that so many people develop later in life and for which they often begin their treatment with pills. And even within this category, we're asking that vaccination at this time, he reserved for those who may not have been able to achieve good control of their blood sugars and therefore needed to go to the hospital for things like DK, we have P K, u Tay Sachs and other rare inherited metabolic disorders. And if you have a question about this category, please talk to your doctor epilepsy with continuing seizures, hydrocephalus, microcephaly and other neurological disorders. And again, this would expressly not applied to people who have had federal seizures early in childhood fairly common, uh, illness, but now are doing just fine. Turner Syndrome, fragile X, Prader Willi and other severe genetic disorders. And these air, often called chromosomal disorders. People with severe asthma again, not the majority of us who have asthma but are doing very well with our inhalers and other medications. But those whose asthma is more serious and has required them to go to the hospital in the past year. Alfa and Beta thalassemia senior these air blood problems and most of these patients have a specialist. And if you have a question, ask your specialist and then finally, the or the solid organ transplant candidates and recipients. Doctor, thank you very much. We'll remind everybody that this could be found on our website. Coronavirus dot Ohio dot gov slash vaccine also is a reminder. We're at 65 years of age in order. We're going to stay there for the next few weeks. Eso If you've not been able to get your vaccine yet in your 65 years of age and older, you're gonna be able to get it. And I know it's been frustrating for you, but we're going to continue to hold right there at 65 because 65 older constitutes 87% of our deaths in the state. We know this is the most vulnerable population, so we're gonna get to you and we're gonna keep trying to get that more supply into the into the state of Ohio. Eric, let's go to our data slides real quickly. 2200 cases were happy to see them where they are. We hope they would even go down even, obviously, even even further. If you look at the death sadly, were 98 deaths, hospitalizations, a higher number thin. Frankly, we've been running, And when we look down here and I see you admissions, they're they're higher as well. So let's go to our county's interesting thing. I noticed this is our all our counties. And again this is by the last two weeks how many cases they've had per 100,000 population. Something interesting occurred this week. No, Didn't county the last county? You'll see it's in white. Why is it in white? Well, we've had a solid blue over here, and solid blue simply means that every county for the last number of weeks have been higher than the what's considered to be a high instant level. Been County First County in a long time drop below that. They're not below it by very much, but they did drop below it a little bit. So that's a good piece of note news. Let's go to our top 20 again. Brown County, Clinton County, Athens County. Those three are up in the neighborhood of about four times the high incident level. Let's go the next slide, Eric Hospitalizations. Uh, sadly, we continue to see people come into our hospital people who are ill people on ventilators. Friend, I have a friend who just found out today is on a ventilator. Uh, but the good news is this number continues to edge downward. Uh, just a little bit over 1500 of our fellow highlands who are in the hospital now for Kobe. So those numbers continue to get better. Let's go to the alert map. No changes in the alert map. We've not seen a change in this map for, uh, quite some time. Um, let me now, um, talk about one final thing before I go to the lieutenant governor. We know that people are looking forward to spring early summer graduation from, uh, sporting events on. We're getting a lot of requests and enquiries. About what? What is that going to look like? And so we're working on this We're working on this weekend on. Well, let Dr Vanderhof talk a little bit about kind of where we are in general, but one of things that we know today that we did not know, you know, a number of months ago, and every month that goes by, we it's driven home, even mawr. And that is the power of the masks. So, you know, the wearing of the mass is going to allow us to do things in the spring. We now know how powerful they are. We've seen it in school, phenomenally successful, what teachers have done and students have done in our in our schools. That's because people have been mask up wearing the mask. Everybody, even sometimes many times within a close proximity to each other. And we're not seeing much spread. So as we look to the spring, we look for problems. We look for graduation, we look to sporting events. We looked at all kinds of things that we want to do to get back to normal. I think this the mask is going to be able to allow us to do a lot of these things on. I'm optimistic frankly, about that. So, Dr Banner off. I wonder if you could, uh, talk a little bit more about this, you and I, and the lieutenant governor and our team. We're talking about this earlier this morning and maybe just share a little some of your thoughts. Yes. Thank you, Governor. Well, as we look ahead to the spring months, I think we need to be cognizant of the fact that mawr contagious strains of the virus, especially be 117 the so called UK variant are in fact, appearing in Ohio. What we're seeing is that the virus that causes Covad 19 is changing, as nearly all viruses do to become more contagious. And it's happening here in Ohio Justus it has in other parts of the world. In fact, the B 117 variant is now in a least 40 states, and other variants, including B 13 51 which is originally from South Africa, and P one, which is originally from Brazil, have also arrived in some other states. Thes news strains. These new variants are an important signal about what's happening to the virus In rotated, they tell us the virus is becoming more contagious and having mawr opportunity to change as it gets into more people. It's becoming more efficient, and it will go on doing so until we, as a group, are largely immune to it until it no longer finds enough of us in which to duplicate and evolve. And that's what many mean when they talk about herd immunity. Vaccines, of course, are the way to achieve herd immunity quickly and without unnecessary suffering or death. But it's going to take more time to get enough of us vaccinated that this virus is no longer a threat. Meanwhile, the B 117 variant and others are among us, so we still have to protect the many of us who haven't yet been vaccinated and are both vulnerable to illness and able to spread the virus. And those of us who aren't yet vaccinated also don't want to be the Petri dish for some new variant. That's why it's very important that we don't declare victory too quickly. Make no mistake, vaccines are working very, very well, but our national vaccination effort needs more time. That's why we need to keep up our good work of preventing spread of this virus with masking and distancing, which we know are working. I mean, just look at our flu numbers. Last year a this point we were approaching 5500 flu hospitalizations in Ohio. This year we haven't even hit 100. So as we go forward, we'll continue to watch these variants very closely, with particular attention on the indicators of Covad disease activity from our dashboards that the governor just reviewed. But I think we can all be encouraged by our results so far, they reflect our good adherence to masking and distancing along with steady increases in vaccination. So even in the face of these new Mawr infectious variants, we have the weapons we need to improve our lives as we head into this spring masking and distancing work. And they're going to be key toe living our lives more normally as we go into this spring. So we got we have the tools, tools that either we didn't fully understand or that we didn't have. We didn't have the vaccine before. We also have a full understanding of the power of the mask. So those are things that Dr we need to keep in mind as we move forward and we hope will allow us to do more things. Our intention is to have more things that we like to do and that we want to dio the summer as we go forward. The data you gave in regard to flu Doctor Vanderhof was absolutely phenomenal if I wrote it down correctly. Flute. Last flu season 5500 hospitalizations in Ohio. Uh, this year under 100. So, you know, it's really remarkable and a real testament to masking. Yeah, I mean, it really shows the power of the masking and what results that can be. It's just an absolutely phenomenal, um, figure Doctor. Thank you very much. We're gonna go. Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant Governor you're in Richland County and Mansfield, I believe Health Department and tell us what's going on. Well, we are governor. It's People are excited. Thio be here Today is part of Richland public health vaccination effort. Uh, they've been doing, on average, about 100 vaccines a day. We're doing 100 vaccinations today with Madonna on DSO. Uh, things are moving along well in Richland County on at Richland public health, they have by the end of the day, will have vaccinated 2705 people at this facility. Now, today we have Doris Ryan Bowl. Doris is going to get her second dose of the vaccine today. And her nurse, Laura Corbett now, believe it or not, Governor Doris wants Laura to give her the vaccine and not me. Eso I'm going to step aside and let that happen. Well, good afternoon to both of you. Thank you. Thanks for being on our on our show here. Yeah. Okay, Jack. All right. World sex. Would you like a sticker? So you got the vaccine today, Doris? Got a sticker. Just like just like what we do when we vote. We have a sticker for getting the vaccine and it z fantastic. And because I was talking to some of the other folks getting vaccinated downstairs, it's, You know, that's like their armor. Now they feel they feel protected, Uh, and and really excited. Doris, that's your second. This is your second. Is it second, actually, didn't for at all. You gotta You gotta feel good about that. A couple more weeks be she had some friends that were urging her, maybe to scream out in pain or something like that as a joke. And I said, you know e didn't do that. Thank you very much. Good to be with you guys. Appreciate it. And governor, we have we have actually a local celebrity who's gonna be joining us for his first dose today. And that's, uh, Tim. Thank Mayor. Mayor is not getting the vaccine because he's a celebrity. He qualifies. Uh, hey, has, uh, qualifies in the latest round. And, uh, we're glad that he could be here with a nurse. Nurse Amanda Crawford and Amanda is gonna start the process for Mansfield's mayor. Mayor. Thanks. Thanks for having us in your in your community. Appreciate it. My pleasure. Thank you for coming uh, you know, John was trying to tell me you weren't old enough to get this, but I look young. You just You just You're You're young, You're young mayor. So he asked me earlier, governor, whether if I had received the vaccine yet And I said I I'm not old enough yet. I didn't I didn't I don't qualify, but I'll get it as soon as it's my time. I'm ready. One. Not that it. All right. How you doing, mayor? I'm doing great. Thank you very much. You're doing an excellent job. This is great. They were here and you guys were here. And I Lieutenant Governor is doing a great job in both of you are. Thank you. Well, good to be with you both. Thank you both for what you're doing. And, uh, thanks for vaccinating so many people. That's great. You guys are doing a great job with the health department, and, uh, it zits. Wonderful. So thank you all very much. Appreciate it. Thanks, governor. Think we're ready for questions, Governor? First question today is from Scott Allison, Xenia Daily Gazette. It's got the governor. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Scott, you're gonna apologize for the length of this question. I received an email from someone at a Trinity community in the in Montgomery County. The Dayton area, which is an independent living community, not an assisted living or nursing home or affordable housing. Um, and they seem to be kind of lost in the vaccine clinic process because they're not able to get a clinic scheduled because they're not assisted, living or nursing home yet. They have third party providers coming in and out, and their average age is 86. And they have been having a hard time getting the vaccines on day seem to be going through this endless loop. They contacted Montgomery County Health. He told me Contact the Ohio Department of Health. We told the Contact Montgomery County Public Health. What can be done for types of places like this? Well, Scott, thank you. I've visited Trinity a number of times over over the years. Very nice place. And we will We will check on that and get back to you. I don't know whether the director is on director. You on your way got several directors here. Director McIlroy you wanna check that out for us? and for the folks at Trinity, and we'll see what we can do to help him. Yeah, and what will dio, if we can before the end of the show? We do have what's known as a regional rapid response assistance program. What we call it rap and one of the roles of that team is to go out and assist places such as what you describe. So where there are those clusters of older adults, and if it's easier to come to them somewhat or what we're doing for affordable housing, communities were also open to doing in other spaces. So before maybe the end of the show, we can make sure that you have the phone number, um, so that people will know how to reach us. Okay, that that's that's great if you get back to me director on that and I would just say that we're certainly looking, uh, for places would have a significant number. It doesn't have to be a huge number of people, uh, 65 years of age and older and where we can go in there with the team, maybe sometimes go in there with the National Guard and actually, you know, vaccinate everyone who is eligible and everyone who wants the vaccine. We've done that in some high rise areas, apartment buildings. So any time we could have the opportunity to do that and, you know, cover a lot of people. We're certainly willing to do that. And we would love to do that. So let us know. Thank you very much. Next question is from Lindsay Mills WBNS in Columbus. Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. I have to, if you don't mind. The first one governor, you mentioned the frustration with people 65 older. We saw just this weekend Franklin County. When a new clinic opens, the website crashes. So my question there is How is the state helping? And then my second question. And if I could get this in eyes about SB 22 giving lawmakers veto power over your health mandates your own party supporting that. So what should the public believe here? Well, let's start with your question about people. The frustration. If you're 65 older, you're eligible. But yet you can't get the vaccine. Um, we're coming in every week. What we're getting now is roughly 200001st doses every week. Uh, for the next week and a half, Uh, about 55,000 of those per week is going to go to our educators. But that means that roughly these air rough figures around 140,000 are going to go to people 65 older. Once we hit March 1st, those numbers will go up. And because we'll be done with the educators, so 3/4 of it is now going to those 65 older. Ah, higher. Much higher percentage will go those 65 older when we get into March. So we're not gonna move off 65 until we have some satisfaction that everyone 65 older who wants this vaccine has been ableto t get it. So it's a supply demand. We have a big demand, which is great. We don't have enough supply, but that supply should, we're told, continue to arch up a Z. We move forward. So as we look to the future, we don't know what date that will occur. But we hope sometime around march 1st we're gonna see the third vaccine come in. We don't know exactly Johnson Johnson I was talking to executives from Johnson Johnson yesterday. They really couldn't tell us exactly what that first few weeks is going to be. But there will be some change a coming into Ohio, and so that will help us. A swell a sfar a Senate bill 22. Um, look, look, this bill was improved. Uh, grateful that it was, in fact, improved. Um, by the General Assembly, Uh, that Dolan amendment. But we think it has a ways to go. And really, it's not so much about me. In fact, it's not about me. It would take even this were passed. This would take some time before it went into effect. But what? We have to make sure we get right eyes. How a future governor, not a Mike DeWine, future governor, um, can react to an emergency. An emergency of any type that may hit the state of Ohio. We can all dream up our worst case scenarios, but we do not want to leave the people of the state of Ohio defenseless, and we do not want to leave. Take these powers away from a governor and not think about what the future might bring. And what might be coming through and be hit hit us with. So I think we have to be very careful. I fully understand the General Assembly's desire eyes a branch of government to be involved in discussion. Um, you know, in the last few months, we've really ramped up our discussions with state Legislature. We're gonna continue to do that. We want to hear from them. We want to have input from them. We're doing weekly calls, which we'd love to have any member of the General Assembly get on to talk about. What they're seeing is we look to the future. You know, our concern is the variant. We don't know exactly what's gonna happen with that, but we do believe that with the masking the power of the mask and the vaccine that we're going to be able to see things get better and that the spring is gonna be a much more normal spring, we hope, than we have seen in a year ago in spring. So we look forward in summer, I guess, to working with the General Assembly. Talk this through to figure out how we can, you know, make sure they have the input they want and that they're part of this. But we don't want him be in a situation where future governor does not have the tools that she or he needs to protect the people of the state of Ohio. That would be shortsighted. It could be, uh, tragic. So we can work this through. I think it's gonna take some effort on both our parts, and I'm willing to make that effort. We just have to be careful what we end up what we end up with. But I think things are going to continue to get better. We hope, and we're gonna continue to work with the Legislature, and we hope to come to some accommodation in regard to this piece of legislation. Next question is from Jess Harden at Mahoning matters dot com. Hi, Governor. Thanks for taking my question today. Um, A rep from Youngstown City School District said today that the district is announcing its reopening plans next week, and it appears that the district is going to miss your March 1st deadline. Of the 1300 employees who signed up to receive the vaccine, 1100 have gotten their first shot. What happens to the 1100 expected to be needing the second dose. And what happens to the estimated 250 employees who haven't received vaccines yet? And given the fact that the district is under state control, how is missing this deadline? An option? We got a lot of questions. They're they're all good. Um, I believe that everyone Youngstown schools who wanted the shot, got it. That's a pretty high uptake number. We're going to keep our word. We're not going. Thio fail to give them a second dose. I mean, that would be irresponsible. That would not be what we should be doing. They got the first dose. They should get the second dose in the appropriate time, and we will make sure that they do that. I want to put this in perspective. When we started this discussion, when I first announced in December that we asked schools to come back by March 1 no later than March 1 and we said to them we will vaccinate everyone in your school. All the adults, Um, if you're willing to come back by March 1 at that point where I think it 41 42% of of the of the population student population. We're going to schools that were totally remote. 42%. Um, today I just looked at it. We are. Let me just let me look again. We do the do the quick math here. If we look at the schools today, that number is going down to 12%. So we're down to 12% 40 some. So we've already achieved a great A great deal. I think this program has been immensely successful. Um, we've been able to get shots into people's arms very effectively. We're in the third week that slowed down a little bit this week because of weather. We're gonna pick that will pick that back up and should be done by March. By March 1st, everybody first shot some people a second shot. So the program's been successful. It's been successful and getting kids back in school. And remember what we said is either back in school full time or back in school hybrid. So the fact that some schools may miss this by a few days is not good, but I think we need to keep our eye on the ball that we you know, the glasses about 95% full, and we should not fixate on the 5% or so. That is not is not full. We have some schools. If if I look at my chart here, or look at my my team gave me today, um, if you look at, we do have some, you know, Traditionally, we've had remote, full, remote, full in person, and then we've had hybrid. Now we're getting something that's kind of else. That's really not doesn't qualify for the hybrid, but where schools? Some of the kids were coming back part of the time, and that's, you know, that's really not where we want to be. But it's certainly better than what was what was going on. Lieutenant Governor, you wanna anything? Yeah, Governor, I just want I just want to say that there are so many schools, though, that air just excited about the fact that they're coming back. The teachers, the administrators, the kids, many of them are are really doing a great job. They're coming back. They've proven that you could do it safely and successfully, and we just have a couple of outliers that that need to buy into what the rest of Ohio is doing and and serve those Children. So I just wanted to add that Thanks, Governor. Yeah, I got I got a text from Akron a few minutes ago, so they're trying to move it up. Eso Look, we just ask people to make the best effort. Would love for them to be back March 1, But this has been successful, and, uh, I think it's getting more successful as we go. Next question is from danda rows of W Ohio in Cleveland. Good afternoon, Governor Dan. Um, I'm doing my best here. I get contacted quite a bit by quite a few folks on most of the time. I can help them understand why they are or are not eligible and then really explaining It's just a supply issue that there just aren't enough. Just because you, your group qualifies, doesn't mean you're gonna be able to get it the next day. But I've had a couple in the past couple of days. That air just head scratching. Ah, 48 year old quadriplegic man here in Northeast Ohio who has cerebral palsy. We've had a 30 a 32 year old. Both women have cystic fibrosis both of whom had appointments scheduled on Lee to get a call and say, Oh, you're only 30 years old. You don't qualify your 32 on. You don't qualify, can you? Can you empathize with how tough this is? They finally think they have a shot, and then they're out. And where's the communication failure? Well, you could never have enough communication. Uh, and you know, I started this press conference. One of things I said specifically cystic fibrosis. We want we want to. Dr. Vanderhof went him. Let him go through the list again. We have 700 some providers. There's always someone who just doesn't get to get the message, I guess. Eso we're doing it one more time today and we're saying as strongly as I can say it, we have enlist. You should be looking at the list. The list. If you're a provider, you should have that list in front of you. You should have that list on your Web page. And when someone fits that criteria, they have every right to be there. And it doesn't matter what their ages and the whole purpose of this list. The whole purpose of this list is to reach people who are not 65 but who, if they get the coveted it's not good. It's really not good. And so the examples that you have given, I would be very frustrated if I was them. I would simply say, You know, if you wanna offline, give us their contacts, we will reach out to them or if they want to just go back on dry again. But we wanna make sure that they get this vaccine because they they're the people, the very people that we want tohave it. And you know, as we look at this, um, we just have to cover the most vulnerable people that we can. Age is a great indicator is the best indicator, but we know there's some people under 65 who also are in a situation where they're very vulnerable and we have to be able to get them vaccine. So again, my message to our to our all the providers, I believe we a zoo. This morning, I said we need to send another message out, send another email out, contact our providers, tell them they've got Thio. Watch this list. Next question is from Nathan hearted wcpo in Cincinnati. Hi, Governor. I was wondering if the state has a plan for vaccinating homeless people and workers at homeless shelters. I don't know if we've got anybody on here who can answer that. Uh, if any of our directors air on, I'm looking. I'm looking at the board to see who's up. Who wants to jump on anybody. I I have specifically, I know, Ask this question. And, uh, Director McIlroy I don't know if you have the answer for that. We've talked about this before. I know efforts have been made to do that. Um, do you have anything to add to that Or we can check. I do know that we have The team is looking at that issue in trying to see how we can reach the population. It is definitely a part of our overall strategy with equity. So I just wanted to make certain that it was understood that we're acutely aware of the need and we're trying to be certain that we have a way to reach people. I think one of the, uh, one of the I think pieces that we have to be certain that we're able to address is the two dose regiment. And when people are transient and moving, being certain that we have a way to do it and is it a situation where perhaps, um that we look at some of the some of the vaccine products that we believe are coming on? So I just thought it was important to come on is to say that we're absolutely aware of it. We do have people who are looking at Intuit on. We're just trying to see the well, I'll check with our team because I know that we've done. There's been some vaccination done at these shelters, and you know, someone who's watching this may say, Well, why you doing homeless? Well, if you have people who are in for any period of time in a Congress care setting, uh, homeless shelter, depending on you know the situation in that shelter, the configuration, you know, they may be in a Congress care setting. And, you know, we have tried to again criteria always is who is the most vulnerable who is the most likely to get really sick or die if they get the virus, so we'll get we'll get back apologize. We'll get back with a four answer on what we've done and what we're going to do. UH, either later in the press conference today or we'll get back on Tuesday. Next. Questions from Kristen, Speaker at the Dayton Daily News Hi, Governor. Um Christian. Last night, we learned that Wright State University is expected to receive a recommendation to eliminate roughly 100 faculty positions. I was just checking to see if you've been briefed on the situation. And if you have a comment or any concerns about how it would impact university and its community, well, as you know, if we were in the Miami Valley knows, you know, right, state has had some difficulties, Uh, in regard to the budget. Uh, you know many other schools or having difficulties. The coronavirus is Asser baited problems for our liberal arts schools or private schools as well as our our public schools on. I know that the board right state president, you know, our continue to focus on what is the right size for Wright State. The question that every college has to face today eyes, you know, what's their niche, and I know that right state is going through that process and working on that. So I don't have any specific response to this news that I just I read today. But I know that they're making efforts. Right. State is very important to the Miami Valley, right state has to thrive, and getting in a position where it can thrive is very important. But I don't have any particulars or any judgment. Frankly, on this piece of news, thank you. Next question is from Sarah Arthur's at the Finley Courier. Thank you, Governor. My question is for director McIlroy if she's still available. And that is, um, you had indicated that there was a webinar with the nursing homes and people had a lot of questions. I'm curious what some of the more common questions were, or what some of the obstacles are to getting more vaccines into nursing homes for the people that are not yet vaccinated and how the state's addressing those obstacles. Thanks. Your Sarah. Thank you, Director. Yeah. So first, I would say a lot of the questions were many were operational in nature. So, um, for example, if I'm on a shared campus, if I have an assisted living facility and a nursing facility. Um, can we all be vaccinated at the same time? Also, if I have an independent living settings, can they also be included on being vaccinated? What we know with the clinics that took place is that there were situations where some people were hesitant and they didn't necessarily want to do it during the first rounds that we were able to go out. We also know that there are other situations where maybe a person was ill. Maybe they were off work, so there were a lot of missed opportunities, and what we simply want to do is be certain that we go back and are able to capture those who want the vaccine now and to be sure that we capture those new residents and those new staff coming in. I think right now we we have this really interesting time of we were waiting to see if perhaps there would be a federal program that would be activated. I do believe that perhaps that will happen, but we did not want to be in a situation where we lost the continuity that we already had in place. I am told that we it's my understanding that We are the first state, uh, to look to move forward in a program such as this eso I think there's excitement, there's a lot of energy around it, and we're trying to be flexible. It's possible just to make sure that we can do it in a way that is conducive to the business at the facilities have right now. You know, we haven't talked on this press conference about Swiss cheese for a long time, but I'm just thinking that you know their holes there and we gotta fill the holes and the holes come from people who had the opportunity to get the vaccine and said, No, I don't wanna won't wait, Okay, Now they've waited. Now they see millions of people vaccinated. Maybe they want it. You got a new resident that's coming in. Maybe they have not been had the opportunity to get vaccinated, but we need to make sure they're vaccinated. Um, it could be a new employee who's come in, or if the director said one employee who was on vacation or just simply not there when it came through the first couple of times. So we got to continue to keep hammering away at this because this is where ah, huge number of our deaths are. Andi, we've, you know, made great great progress. We don't wanna lose that progress. And frankly, we want to continue to fill the fill the holes that air there for anyone who actually wants the vaccine could force anybody ticket, but we sure want to make it available to anyone in those situations. Next question is from Chelsea Sick it W k f in Dayton, either Governor DeWine, Chelsea. We were told by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services director that it's possible another federal stimulus package could mean more needed system upgrades to the state's unemployment system. The department told us those upgrades were to blame for the backlog of pandemic related unemployment payments last month. Are you working with federal leaders on accommodating another stimulus package When it comes to unemployment? What's your message to Ohioans? Worried that a federal relief package could mean less money for a period of time? Yeah, the directors on, I believe, Eric, if you can Well, the director of Yes, I'm here. Good afternoon, Director. Afternoon. Thank you, Chelsea. We are keeping a very close eye on the activity in Congress. So far, we don't have an indication that there will be major tweaks to essentially the four make the four programs that air running right now, but we we are in a wait and see mode. Our goal certainly will be to respond as quickly as we can to whatever those additional requirements might be and work as hard as we can to get benefits out the door to those who are eligible. Thank you. Next question is from Andy Chow at Ohio Public Radio and television governor wondering if I'm wondering if you and Dr Vanderhof could address a claim that was brought up a lot yesterday by supporters of SB 22 um, to kind of break it down. Many people sa