K-12 teachers in Ohio could begin receiving the COVID-19 vaccine as early as Feb. 1, provided their districts agree to return to in-person or hybrid learning by March 1. Lakota Local Schools superintendent Matt Miller is already making plans.

“We want to be ready,” he said Friday afternoon. “We want to be prepared as quick as we can for those that do want it.”

Feb. 1 isn’t far away. In the 23 days remaining, Miller and other superintendents throughout Ohio must decide on a return to in-person learning, survey their staff to learn which will be vaccinated, create a vaccination plan with the help of local health officials and communicate each development with students’ families.

TIMELINE: When Ohioans can get the COVID-19 vaccine

“That’s something we’re not used to in schools, obviously, but something that our partners are,” Miller said of the complex logistical task in front of him. “We’re relying on them to help us with some of the logistics and coordination and timing all of that.”

Lakota will return to full-time, in-person classes for most students during the spring semester. Only students who specifically opted out will learn online.

The same is true for Lockland Local School District, where superintendent Bob Longworth said he trusts his public health partners to create a plan that’s best for everyone in the distrct.

“We’re in very good hands in this region of the state,” he said. “We’re very confident in publc health and the work they’re going to do to coordinate the logistics.”

Most staff members in both districts are eager to be vaccinated, the superintendents said.

“Each day, our goal is to make sure that we can open up the doors the following day for the students and families that need us,” said Longworth.

That’s about 552 students for him and 15,000 for Miller.

Cincinnati Public Schools, which serves 36,000, has yet to make a decision about its own possible return to in-person learning. The district’s board of education meets next on Jan. 16 to examine local health data and discuss a possible end to remote learning.

And all of their plans rely on Ohio receiving enough vaccine to cover the increasingly large population eligible for the shot.

According to Mike DeWine, the state expects to get about 100,000 doses each week for the next several weeks. By the time teachers become eligible to receive the vaccine, they’ll be in line alongside hundreds of thousands of seniors who became eligible before they did.

CINCINNATI — As Cincinnati Public Schools district officials planned to meet Saturday to review their COVID-19 safety plan, one couple urged board of education members to prioritize making in-person instruction, or a blend of in-person and remote learning, an option again.

Scott and Katrina Hardy said they and their three children -- all CPS students -- have rolled with the punches the last 10 months after the district went fully remote in light of the coronavirus pandemic reaching the Tri-State. With the exception of a short period before the Thanksgiving holiday break, CPS students have not seen their classrooms since March.

"CPS administrators and board members are the ones who have kept our schools closed while other school districts have returned," the Hardys wrote. "Now is the time for you to offer the children and parents of CPS the option to return to 'in person' learning."

Scott Hardy told WCPO Friday that he thinks it's time the district adjust its plan based on the latest data and recommendations by health officials.

"We just thought that, as the guidelines change, it's time for Cincinnati public to step up and adjust their policies and adjust their criteria for getting kids back into school," he said. "When I see friends at work and they say, 'Oh, how are your kids doing in school?' they are shocked when I tell them they're not in school."

In their letter, the Hardys pointed to state officials' decision to suspend the requirement that any K-12 student exposed to COVID-19 quarantine at home for two weeks and attend school virtually and to other nearby districts that have since returned to blended instruction models.

"It just would be so much easier for the kids, and I know for the teachers, to be in school, where they can pull out groups and have different groups working on different things," Katrina Hardy said.

They are also hopeful the rollout of vaccines will convince district leaders at least to offer the option to send kids back to the classroom.

"Above anything else, we believe in choices for people," Scott Hardy said.

WCPO reached out to CPS Friday but did not immediately hear back. The CPS Board of Education will meet with Superintendent Laura Mitchell at 8:30 a.m. Saturday.

Per Gov. Mike DeWine, an Ohio school can be eligible to receive vaccinations for its staff only if they indicate by Monday, Jan. 18, a plan to return to in-person learning by March 1. The Ohio Department of Health said schools can submit such plans later than Monday, but those schools will sit further down the list for vaccination delivery.

Read the Hardys' full letter to CPS officials in the viewer below:

Open Letter to Cincinnati Public Schools re: in-person learning by WCPO Web Team on Scribd

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Activating members of the Ohio National Guard for duty protecting the Statehouse and to provide security in Washington during the inauguration of President Biden ran around $1.2 million, the guard said Friday.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine activated about 1,000 members of the Ohio guard for duty in and around the U.S. Capitol following its Jan. 6 breach by a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump. DeWine activated about 500 guard members for duty providing security at the Ohio Statehouse ahead of possible protests in the days afterward.

The estimated cost of the Ohio deployment, including pay, meals and accommodation, was $1,042,000, according to data provided by Guard spokeswoman Stephanie Beougher.

The cost of in-state travel for Guard members was $68,732, and federally funded travel costs to Guard members serving in and around Washington for the inauguration of President Joe Biden was $93,110, Beougher said.

In Ohio, concerns over potential protests at the Statehouse Jan. 17 faded as a small number of armed but peaceful demonstrators were considerably outnumbered by state troopers and National Guard members during an afternoon rally.

On Inauguration Day, a small crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters rallied peacefully at the Statehouse, also far outnumbered by security personnel.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol is still calculating its security costs.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday ordered $390 million across-the-board budget cuts for the rest of the fiscal year, citing the ongoing economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. A new budget year begins July 1.

The Republican governor also announced that — because the cuts aren’t as big as last year — an additional $160 million can be provided to the state Department of Education and $100 million to the Department of Higher Education. This was money that was previously withheld.

“As many schools, colleges and universities return to in-person learning, it’s important that the funding be reinstated,” DeWine said. The governor has set a goal of K-12 students returning to some form of in-person learning by March 1.

In June, DeWine cut $775 million from the budget because of plummeting revenue due to the pandemic. Ohio’s total 2021 budget, including state and federal funds, is about $72 billion. But much of that is tied up in mandatory programs like Medicaid, the joint state-federal health care program for poor children and families.

Also Friday, DeWine extended the state 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, which expires Saturday, until Jan. 30. The pandemic-driven curfew requires people to stay at home during those hours except for work, food purchases, medical appointments and other necessary travel.

This extension is much shorter than the previous order, which ran from Dec. 31 to Jan. 23. On Thursday, DeWine suggested the next step might be to extend the curfew to 11 p.m., but said, “We’re just not there.”

The seven-day rolling average of daily new coronavirus cases in Ohio did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 7,527 new cases per day on Jan. 7 to 6,059 new cases per day on Jan. 21, according to an Associated Press analysis of data provided by The COVID Tracking Project.

CINCINNATI — Linda Staley cannot wait to have preschoolers back in the classroom at These Precious Hands Child Development Center in Avondale. That's why she was disappointed to learn that phase 1B of Ohio's COVID-19 vaccination rollout plan, which includes teachers, excludes childcare facilities outside the K-12 parameters.

Staley said she understands prioritizing schoolchildren.

"I'm thinking they want to get all the children back in school, get the vaccine so they can stay in school," Staley told WCPO. "I'm just hoping and praying that we get vaccinated very, very soon because our staff is ready."

People 75 years and older became eligible to receive the vaccine Monday, along with other individuals with certain preexisting health conditions. Staff at K-12 schools that have committed to returning to at least a blended, remote and in-person learning model by March 1 are also eligible Feb. 1, although Cincinnati Public Schools announced this week it will be able to begin vaccinating its staff by Jan. 28.

TIMELINE: When Ohioans can get the COVID-19 vaccine
READ MORE: Ohio vaccine supply can't keep up with demand

By Feb. 15, per Ohio's vaccine schedule, any Ohioan over the age of 65, anyone who has a qualified, preexisting medical condition, anyone who teaches at a qualified K-12 school, and anyone working in health care or convalescent care will be eligible to receive the vaccine.

But that's as far out as Gov. Mike DeWine's vaccination plan looked as of Tuesday afternoon.

"We're not being fair," said Dr. O'dell Owens, CEO of Interact for Health and a member of the Ohio Minority Vaccine Task Force. "We're telling preschool teachers and daycare teachers that they have to wait."

Owens meets with the task force weekly and said the decision to exclude preschools and daycare centers is inconsistent with decisions made at the start of the pandemic last spring.

"Last year in March and April, we were shutting down, and they closed schools except for what? Preschools. Daycare," he said. "They said, 'No, you must stay open in order to take care of the essential workers and first responders so they can go to work.'"

Inoculating pre-K educators in Phase 1B does not align with the state’s goals in this early stage of vaccinations, DeWine said during a news conference Tuesday.

“We try to stay focused, as long as we have such a limited amount of vaccine, to the question of how we can save the most lives with this limited amount of vaccine. The other thing that our goal is, we’ve been very clear, and that is children K-12, getting them back in school,” DeWine said.

However, DeWine indicated that pre-K vaccinations could be re-evaluated in the future.

“Certainly our early childhood teachers, our early childhood providers do a great job. And we’ll continue to evaluate this situation as we move forward,” DeWine said.

Staley remained hopeful that she and her staff of five will be among the next group announced as part of the ongoing plan to roll out the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

"Hopefully we'll be the next batch that go out," she said.

Meanwhile, Staley said her staff has remained healthy, with access to free COVID-19 testing every week through an early childhood education group.

Her daycare, on the other hand: "We just been taking it one day at a time."

WCPO 9 Statehouse News Bureau Fellow Nathan Hart contributed to this story.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is giving the latest update on coronavirus, and the state's vaccination plans.

Watch live in the video player above.

Tuesday's news briefing comes hours and his wife, Fran DeWine, received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine Tuesday in a procedure streamed live.

The couple were eligible because both are older than 70, the age group that could receive vaccines in Ohio beginning this week under the state vaccination plan. DeWine, a Republican, had said previously he would not cut in line for the shot but would wait his turn.

The Pfizer dose was administered by Dr. Kevin Sharrett in his southwestern Ohio office. Sharrett said he is frequently asked about the vaccine's safety. The vaccine is not only safe, it's a better choice than coming down with COVID-19, Sharrett said.

“The positive benefits of taking the vaccine by far outweigh any kind of negative to the vaccine,” he said. No serious adverse reactions have been seen among the thousands of doses given locally, Sharrett said.

More than 850,000 people in Ohio have received at least the first dose of the vaccine as of Monday, or about 7% of the population, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

In addition to people over 70, the state also has started rolling out vaccines to employees in some school districts that are having in-person classes or aiming to reopen within a few weeks.

A teachers union sued to try to delay Cincinnati Public Schools’ plan to resume a hybrid model of in-person and distance learning, citing health and safety concerns. But a Hamilton County judge concluded the decision was within the school board’s authority and dismissed the complaint Monday, allowing the district to start bringing students back to classrooms Tuesday.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Ohio did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 6,587 new cases per day on Jan. 18 to 4,346 new cases per day on Feb. 1, according to an Associated Press analysis of data provided by The COVID Tracking Project.

ANDERSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Nicole Giordano doesn't want to have to pull her son out of Turpin High School, but she said she will if the Forest Hills Board of Education votes to make masks mandatory at district schools this year.

"I told him at the end of this school year, I let you do this for a year," she said. "But if this happens again, we're not doing this."

Board members were expected to make a decision at their meeting Wednesday night on whether they would require students, staff and visitors to mask up. And — as other groups have organized in other parts of the Tri-State both Wednesday and in recent days — protesters are expected to organize in support or opposition of such a decision.

Similar protests were planned outside the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and in Oxford, Ohio, near Miami University's campus.

"It affects their attention span," she told WCPO. "It makes them sleepy. It can give them anxiety. I feel really bad for my son because he wants to be with his friends, but I also want him to breathe healthy."

Another district mom, who is also an emergency physician, said she'd also consider pulling her kids from the district but for the opposite reason as Giordano.

"It's common sense that, you know, wear a mask, don't spread the virus," said Dr. Ruth Hartjen, who said she's exploring online options for her kids if the board of education does not mandate masks. "We're talking about that not only the immediate health and well-being of our children. We're also talking about a healthcare system simply is at its break."

Political science professor Dr. Ryan Salzman, who teaches at Northern Kentucky University, said the uptick in protests in recent days is no surprise.

"I think we're probably at a high point for the mask mandates themselves because of the delta variant and because schools are going back in," Salzman said.

Unlike in Kentucky, where on Tuesday Gov. Andy Beshear issued an executive order requiring all public and private schools to require masks in school buildings, Ohio so far has left the decision up to local school districts. Salzman said that could make protests like those expected outside the Forest Hills Board of Education chamber Wednesday more impactful.

"In Ohio, there's these mask mandates, where they do exist, are being implemented more at the local level," Salzman said. "So, therefore, having protests at school board meetings may lead, you know, have a higher likelihood of leading to change."

CINCINNATI — A limited number of Cincinnati Reds single-game tickets for the upcoming season will go on sale online March 17 at 9 a.m.

Ticket windows open at Great American Ball Park the next day 9 a.m. The sale excludes tickets for Opening Day.

This season, all tickets will be issued digitally via the MLB Ballpark app for contactless entry, including tickets purchased at ball park windows.

Pre-sale opportunities begin March 15, when season ticket members can buy single-game admission online. On March 16, paid vouchers from 2020 or account credit single game go on sale online.

Like many aspects of life amid the coronavirus pandemic, this year's ball park experience will look a little different. Masks will be mandatory for all fans, and masks should properly cover the nose and mouth unless you're eating or drinking in a seat.

Fans will be seated in socially distanced pods for up to six per group to keep fans 6 feet apart while watching the game. All concessions and merchandise stands will go contactless and cashless. The ball park also has a new policy prohibiting backpacks.

Find information about tickets, the Reds' schedule and more here.

The MLB opens the season on April 1, when the Reds host the St. Louis Cardinals at 4:10 p.m., and the league expects to play 162 games in the 2021 season.

Meanwhile, the Reds Opening Day Parade has been postponed until Great American Ball Park can safely accommodate fans at full capacity, according to parade organizer Findlay Market Association. Last month, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced that sports stadiums will be allowed to fill seats to 30% capacity.

In 2020, the pandemic shut down spring training in March and delayed Opening Day until July. Teams played a 60-game schedule with an expanded postseason, and games were played without fans in stands.

Ohio's new "stand your ground" law goes into effect Tuesday.

The controversial new law, signed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in January, eliminates Ohioans' duty to retreat before using force.

The measure expands the so-called “stand your ground” right from an individual’s house and car to any place, “if that person is in a place in which the person lawfully has a right to be.”

The new law can be explained like this: In the past, if someone shot in self-defense, the burden was on the shooter to prove that's why they did it. With a "stand your ground" law, the burden shifts to the prosecutor to prove the shooting was not justified.

In addition to making prosecutors prove a claim of self-defense may not be justified, the measure would also eliminate the call for gun owners with concealed carry permits to try to retreat from a threat before opening fire.

The Republican governor signed the bill despite his long expressed concerns that GOP lawmakers were ignoring his own legislation proposed following the 2019 mass shooting in Dayton.

ABOVE VIDEO: Son of man killed in Dayton mass shooting upset over new 'stand your ground' law

DeWine has said he wants any gun legislation to include his proposals for toughening background checks and boosting penalties for felons committing new crimes with guns. The governor has pushed these measures since the 2019 mass shooting in Dayton that killed nine and wounded more than two dozen.

DeWine said he's not giving up, and will continue to ask the new GOP-controlled General Assembly to approve his proposals.

Republican lawmakers and gun rights groups praised DeWine for signing the “stand your ground” bill. Proponents of the law say this legislation simply aligns Ohio with most other states in the country.

"Ohio is kind of backwards where self-defense you are guilty and have to prove yourself innocent. And we think that the burden should be on the prosecutors, not on the innocent person that is trying to keep their family safe," said Joe Eaton, with Buckeye Firearms Association.

But Democrats, big city mayors and Black lawmakers have strongly criticized the governor for the move.

Such laws “upend centuries of traditional self-defense doctrine and threaten public safety by encouraging armed vigilantism,” Democratic Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan said.

Ohio's Vax-a-Million campaign began a month ago with the hopes of encouraging more residents to get their COVID-19 shots and bringing the state's vaccination rate up to 70%. With only one drawing left, Ohio is still short of that goal.

"The first two weeks were phenomenal," said Gov. Mike DeWine during a Thursday news conference with the fourth week's winners. "It's certainly leveled off. That's pretty much what we would've expected. We expected the real impact to come quickly. The first week, big big, the second week big, then tail off from there."

DeWine said the Ohio Department of Health recorded a 28% increase in vaccinations the weekend after he announced the Vax-a-Million lottery, which each week for five weeks awards $1 million to one vaccinated adult and a full-ride scholarship at any state university to one vaccinated person under 18. Winners in Southwest Ohio have included a woman from Silverton, who snagged $1 million the first week, and a Colerain High grad who won Thursday's scholarship.

On May 13, more than 26,000 Ohioans began their vaccination process. That number dropped by Thursday to a little more than 2,000 people per day beginning their regimen.

Hamilton County Public Health noticed the initial spike.

"It was a nice increase, not nearly as big as we had hoped," said Mike Samet, public information officer for the health agency. "Of course, we want to get everybody vaccinated. We wanted to get to that 70 or 80% by July 4, but we'll take any increases we can get at this point."

In Clermont County, Health Commissioner Julianne Nesbit said she saw declining vaccination numbers before the lottery was announced. At a local level, health workers are still trying to reach communities.

"We have had the goal of partnering with some of our businesses who have offered some incentives," she said. "It's coupons, free movie tickets. We've partnered with RJ Cinemas on it, Little Miami Brewery. We've also partnered with Starlight Drive-In, who's given away some free movie passes out there. So, just trying to look at how we can incentivize."

DeWine said Thursday that President Joe Biden's administration's primary focus is reaching out to the 18-and-older population, which, in Ohio, had a 57% vaccination rate as of Thursday afternoon.

"We have a ways to go, and we're not done yet," DeWine said.

The governor said he has planned future announcements for new incentive programs to encourage more Ohioans to get vaccinated.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is giving the latest update on COVID-19 and the state's response.

Watch live in the video player above.

PREVIOUS STORY: Ohio’s incidence rate is four times higher than what is needed to lift COVID-19 restrictions.

That’s according to Gov. Mike DeWine, who announced Thursday that the state is moving even further away from the benchmark he set in early March to remove health orders across the state.

As of Thursday, Ohio's statewide case incidence number has reached 200 cases per 100,000 people. That's in comparison to the 144 cases per 100,000 people four weeks ago.

There are currently more than 1,300 COVID-positive patients in Ohio's hospitals.

When Ohio gets down to 50 cases per 100,000 people for two weeks, all health orders will be revoked, the governor announced in March.

The state is getting further and further from that benchmark number.

DeWine said the new COVID-19 variant seems, in large part, to blame across the state.

"What we're seeing in Ohio is a strong variant that is multiplying very quickly and is more contagious than the virus we've seen in the past. But we have hope, and hope is the vaccine," the governor said. "Vaccination is how we get out of this."

There are a significant number of vaccine providers across the state with open vaccination appointments for this week and next week.

Several sites are also accepting walk-up appointments including the mass vaccination clinic at Summit County's fairgrounds, Franklin County's regional mass vaccination clinic, and the Youngstown clinics at the Covelli Centre and Congregation Rodef Sholom Temple.

CINCINNATI — Nearly 15 months ago, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issued a range of pandemic-related health orders that directly impacted nearly all aspects of everyday life across the state.

On Wednesday, nearly all of those rules are set to expire, but that doesn't mean you should throw away your face masks just yet.

DeWine announced his plans to roll back the health orders during a May 12 news conference, when he touted the state's rising vaccination rate and falling case rate.

What Ohioans need to know

Orders being lifted Wednesday will include Ohio's mask mandate, social distancing and capacity-limit rules imposed by the state, but DeWine emphasized that it will remain up to businesses and local school districts to decide whether they will continue those requirements.

Those restrictions will remain in place for nursing homes and assisted living facilities, DeWine said.

"For those who are not vaccinated, the virus is just as dangerous as ever," he said on the 12th. "In fact, because the new variant is more contagious, the virus is really more dangerous than ever."

The following week, the governor also acknowledged the continued risk for immunocompromised people who cannot receive any of the COVID-19 vaccines.

"When their doctors say they can take it, we make that available to them. We also continue to recommend that they wear masks when they're out in public facing other people," he said.

Visitors to Kentucky should also take note: The Bluegrass State won't lift COVID restrictions until June 11.

Vaccine levels were up in all age groups and exactly 2,758,470 Ohioans had registered for the state’s Vax-a-Million lottery by Monday afternoon, demonstrating what Gov. Mike DeWine called an encouraging level of buy-in for his experimental COVID-19 vaccine incentive.

“All I know is that, when we announced it, we were going down (in vaccine levels) and we had been going down,” he said, adding later: “We made the decision to try this and see what it would do. I’m more than happy — I’m very, very happy with the results.”

Representatives of the lottery, which is open only to vaccinated people over the age of 18 and will award five $1 million prizes over the course of the next five weeks, will draw their first winner Monday and announce that person’s name on Wednesday.

That name will be removed from the pot; all 2,758,469 others will go back in for the next week’s drawing.

A separate drawing for Ohioans under 18, which will award five full scholarships to Ohio colleges of the recipients’ choosing, will follow the same process. DeWine said 104,386 people had entered that contest by Monday afternoon.

According to data collected by the Ohio Department of Health, vaccination has increased 94% among people ages 16 and 17 — the largest demographic increase in Ohio since the lottery’s announcement. The number of Ohioans 20-49 getting the shot has increased by a smaller but still sizable 55%.

ODH reported 566 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, marking the state’s lowest number of new diagnoses since June 21, 2020.

Eighty-eight people were admitted to Ohio hospitals and eight were newly admitted to intensive care units. ODH recorded no COVID-19-related deaths between Sunday and Monday.

The state of Ohio will stop participating in the federal government's supplemental benefits program, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine announced Thursday.

That program, which gives an extra $300 a week to the jobless, will end on June 26, the governor said.

The supplement has been available since 2020, part of the pandemic stimulus measures passed by Congress. It was made available through Sept. 6.

"Early in the pandemic, Congress put in place the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program to help Americans get through the most difficult economic days of the crisis," the governor said.

"When this program was put in place, it was a lifeline for many Americans at a time when the only weapon we had in fighting the virus was to slow it’s spread through social distancing, masking and sanitization. That is no longer the case. That is no longer our only tool in this fight. This assistance was always intended to be temporary."

The governor attributed his decision to labor shortages in many sectors, saying the June 26 deadline will give people who fear going back to work enough time to receive the vaccination.

Ohio's regular state unemployment is still available.

Ohio joins a list growing list of states who have announced they would drop the program.

Montana was first to announce they were ending the benefits on May 4. Since then, it has been a domino effect, with Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wyoming following suit.

This is a breaking news story. WLWT will update this story as details become available.

CINCINNATI — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine during a visit Friday to Cincinnati's West Side offered some speculation on a question many have been asking as COVID-19 vaccine supply begins to outpace demand.

Can an employer mandate their employees receive the coronavirus vaccine?

"I think you're going to see private businesses more inclined maybe to make that an order," DeWine said.

All three types of COVID-19 vaccine available in the U.S. today -- Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson -- are on the market with emergency use authorization. That's just one step away from full approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

With Pfizer now poised to request full approval of its vaccine, it could open doors for employers to compel their employees to receive the vaccine in order to go back to work, DeWine said, because full FDA approval would close some liability loopholes companies currently face if they were to mandate a emergency-approved inoculation.

"I talked to somebody literally two hours ago on the phone, private business," DeWine said Friday. "I wasn't encouraging it or not, and this person said to me, 'July one. We've already told our folks everybody's got to be vaccinated.'"

But business owner Tim Meehan said a vaccine requirement makes him uneasy. He and his partner Halle visited Deerfield Cinema today, enjoying a movie now that they're fully vaccinated themselves.

"I know that's a personal choice," Tim Meehan said. "I think it's important to get the vaccine, but I don't know about forcing employees to get it."

Cincinnati Health Commissioner Melba Moore supports people getting vaccinated but is wary of mandates, too.

"I don't like the stick approach," Moore said. "Let me give you the science and the information, and let's do what we need to do to get back to what this new normal is going to be."

As part of that approach, Moore's health department will throw a block party Saturday in Hartwell at 8725 Vine Street. A vaccine clinic offering the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot will operate from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with walk-up appointments available until 4 p.m. There will be food and live music.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Small businesses in Ohio have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even as the state plans to allow businesses to reopen in the coming days, many businesses are still in desperate need of financial aid.

As a result, today I asked Gov. Mike DeWine if he has any plans to address the insurance industry’s reluctance to pay loss of income and business interruption claims.

Ben Asks a Question is a feature we started as a way to help give you a voice during Gov. Mike DeWine's daily press briefings. Since then, Ben has gotten hundreds of questions a day. If you'd like to ask a question, find us on Facebook and feel free to message us there, or send us an email at newsdesk@wcpo.com.

In his response, DeWine said he’s aware of the issue and he has been in touch with Ohio’s insurance department about it.

“I know that from talking to small businesses, that that has been a real concern,” said DeWine. “That business interruption, some of them felt that they had coverage, they should have had coverage, and they do not have coverage, or at least the insurance company is telling them now that they do not have coverage.

"I’ve asked our insurance department to take a look at that, and I’ll report back what they tell me," he continued. "Again, this is a private contract, but we also want to make sure people are being treated fairly."

DeWine noted that insurance agreements are private contracts, so it’s not clear if the state will have much power in the issue. A number of lawsuits have already been filed in the state against insurers refusing to pay for lost profits.