Ohio’s vaccination rate stalls amid COVID case rapid decline

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – As warmer weather is approaching, health leaders are encouraging more Ohioans to start the vaccination process. However, vaccination rates have plateaued or even declined in some Miami Valley counties.

“Last week, we administered the lowest number of COVID-19 vaccines in Clark County in many months,” said Clark County Combined Health District (CCCHD) Health Commissioner Charles Patterson. “We continue to make it available in many places, but the interest really is lacking right now.”

Some health leaders suspect residents who have not started the vaccination process simply won’t change their mind regardless of incentives. Ohio has been sitting still at nearly 62 percent of residents starting the process for several weeks.

“We knew going in that there was going to be some vaccine hesitancy, there’s already hesitancy about other vaccines like the flu, not everyone gets a flu shot each year so that was already baked into the equation,” said Public Health Dayton & Montgomery County Public Information Officer Dan Suffoletto.

Public Health believes vaccine hesitancy may be a reason why some Ohioans will never start the vaccination process.

“Under any circumstance, you’re never going to get 100 percent of the people to do anything even if everyone agrees so there’s going to be some drop off there but it’s unknown how much that’s going to be,” said Suffoletto.

As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations rapidly decline across the state, Clark County is hopeful that some Ohioans may change their minds after all.

“We’re on the right path here and by this Friday we expect almost every county in the Miami Valley to be medium or better which means masking in indoor places would no longer be a recommendation,” said Patterson.

This Friday, Patterson anticipates Clark, Champaign and Logan counties will all transition from high incidence areas to medium, turning over a huge milestone here in the Miami Valley.