Today, @OhioChildHosp is making a direct appeal to school superintendents, asking all schools in Ohio to require masks for staff and students during this very dangerous surge of #COVID19. We all share the goal of keeping our kids in school. Reasonable people may disagree about a lot, but we can all agree that we must keep our children in the classroom so they don’t fall behind and so their parents can go to work and not take time off to watch their kids at home.

We are clearly well past the time when the state can mandate to parents and school districts what actions to take. These decisions today rest with the parents and school officials. I'm speaking directly to every parent, school official, and school board member in Ohio: The best way to make sure a child can stay in school is for that child to be vaccinated. If a child can't be vaccinated, the best way to ensure a good year is for that child to wear a mask.

Today in Ohio, we are facing a perfect storm. Just as our kids are back to school, the new delta variant is sweeping across our state taking direct aim at all of those who are not vaccinated. The spread of the delta variant has dramatically accelerated since we last held a public briefing 10 days ago. We are at the highest number of new cases since February. Today we're reporting 3,235 cases.

My fellow Ohioans, you got us to where we are today.
You sacrificed. You persevered. And many times, you have set the bar for the rest of the nation. Let’s show America again what Ohio is made of! Let’s show the nation that same grit and determination in our efforts to get the rest of Ohio vaccinated! Yes -- we have achieved a lot. We are safer today. And the future of Ohio has never been brighter because of your efforts in fighting this pandemic.

Two weeks from tonight on May 26th, we will announce a winner of a separate drawing for adults who have received at least their first dose of the vaccine. This announcement will occur each Wednesday for five weeks, and the winner each Wednesday will receive one million dollars. The pool of names for the drawing will be derived from the Ohio Secretary of State’s publicly available voter registration database. Further, we will make available a webpage for people to sign up for the drawings if they are not in a database we are using.

➡@OHDeptofHealth will remove all pandemic health orders, except those for nursing homes & assisted living facilities, on June 2. This will give anyone not vaccinated time to get the one-shot J&J vaccine or the first dose of Pfizer/Moderna and be well on the way to immunity. Now, lifting these orders does not mean the virus is gone. It does not mean we are all safe. Each Ohio citizen will make their own decisions about wearing a mask and social distancing -- and when, for them, that’s appropriate.

It’s time to end the health orders. It’s been a year. You’ve followed the protocols. You’ve done what we’ve asked. You’ve bravely fought this virus.

And now, our cases are down, and we have a tested and proven weapon in the vaccine that all Ohioans 12 and over can utilize. While we have this great weapon, the danger of remaining unvaccinated is crystal clear. The virus is still here. Our cases are down, but that’s only because 42 percent of our entire population has now been vaccinated and can no longer get it and can no longer spread it.

We can also rejoice now that @US_FDA and @CDCgov are completing the process of making the Pfizer vaccine available for 12- to 15-year-olds. We will start vaccinating these children in Ohio starting tomorrow morning. According to Dr. Sherman Alter, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at @DaytonChildrens, vaccinating children will help us beat back the virus even further. ⬇

We have also made great progress in protecting our vulnerable Ohioans in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. When we first got the vaccine, we prioritized our nursing home residents. In the months since, we have made sure that all nursing homes and assisted living facilities continue to be supplied each week with vaccines -- and the results have been amazing!

When the vaccine arrived, I will never forget that immense feeling of joy and relief as Fran and I watched a delivery truck bring the first precious doses of vaccine to Ohio. At first, demand far outstripped supply. So, we prioritized our most vulnerable Ohioans -- the elderly, our healthcare workers, those born with serious medical conditions, and those with developmental disabilities.

In March of 2020, we faced tremendous unknowns as the first Coronavirus case was confirmed in our state. We didn’t know how quickly it would spread. We didn’t know the best way to test for it or how to treat it. We didn’t know if it would over-run our healthcare system And, we certainly did not know the enormity of the impact it would ultimately have on all our lives. What we did know is that Ohioans are strong, caring, and resilient -- and that we would be in this together.

NEW ➡ Today I’m announcing the priority groups we’ve identified to be part of Phase 1C of Ohio’s vaccination program. This includes certain professions and those with certain medical conditions not covered in previous phases. More details on the occupations that qualify for vaccination in Phase 1C ⬇

More info on Phase 1B: On Tuesday, January 19th vaccinations will be available to those who are 80 years of age and older. Those 80 and older, outside of long-term care, constitute up to 420,000 people. We expect to receive 100,000 doses that first week. Those receiving vaccines will receive them from physicians, local health departments, hospitals, federally-qualified health centers, in-home health service providers, as well as some retail pharmacies.

Today's #COVID19 data for Ohio. Case numbers have jumped dramatically. All 88 counties remain well above the high incidence level.

The situation at the U.S. Capitol is an embarrassment to our country. This must stop immediately. The President should call for the demonstrators to leave our Capitol Building. The final step in the constitutional process of electing our president has been disrupted. The stopping of the count of the Electoral College votes has occurred because the security of the U.S. Capitol has been breached by a violent mob. As a nation of laws, this is simply not acceptable. Lawlessness is not acceptable.

To reiterate our 1A and 1B vaccination goals:

➡Save lives and protect the most vulnerable.
➡Protect those who protect us in the healthcare field.
➡Get kids back in school by March 1. There are roughly a million people in phase 1A. ⬇

Phase 1A of distribution priorities - in no particular order ⬇

◾ Healthcare workers and personnel who are involved in the care of COVID-19 patients
◾ EMS responders
◾ Vulnerable individuals who live together in close proximity and those who care for them ⬇ The federal government has made clear that we will not know for sure how many vaccines are coming until closer to the time the shipments are coming.

Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff: Quarantine only works when we actually stick with it. Knowing this and knowing how hard it is to quarantine for 14 days, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been carefully evaluating emerging data. That, and our growing confidence in testing, has allowed them to offer two new options for quarantining:

A 10-day option that does not require testing, provided there are no symptoms.

And a 7-day option with a negative test, again w/ no symptoms.

Live now at ohiochannel.org: Dr. Nora Colburn, Associate Medical Director for Clinical Epidemiology at @OSUWexMed. Dr. Colburn: We're in crisis. Hospitals across Ohio are running out of beds. Healthcare workers are burned out and stretched thin. Our hospitals are stressed to the extreme and we haven't even seen the infections resulting from Thanksgiving.

Senate Bill 311: This bill, if ever enacted, would severely limit the ability of @OHDeptofHealth to issue orders needed to prevent the spread of infectious disease - not just this disease, ones in the future as well. An example: If a person comes to Ohio from a country w/ an Ebola outbreak, future leaders couldn’t ask them to quarantine until it’s certain they were not directly exposed to a carrier of the disease. They would be free to be in any public place - possibly spreading the disease.

While Franklin is the only county moving to purple this week, we see similar stories in much of the state: Our healthcare system is feeling the impact of this disease and hospitals are worried about being able to keep up w/ staffing of nurses and doctors and other support staff. Other counties may not yet be seeing continuous, uninterrupted increases in the same way that is causing Franklin to move to purple, but make no mistake—almost all counties are seeing more cases and more healthcare use that could threaten the medical system if they continue.