OHIO — More than 650,000 residents of Ohio could be immunized for COVID-19 in December as Moderna and Pfizer shipments arrive – badly needed relief for a state where coronavirus hospitalizations have stacked up this fall.

“We're anxious to go. We're waiting for the approval. We're waiting for them to get shipped,” Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday. 

Most of the vaccine doses in the first wave from Pfizer, 88,725 shots, will be administered by CVS and Walgreens to patients and staff of long-term care facilities. The remaining 9,750 doses in the first shipment are “pre-positioned” doses at 10 hospitals around the state. The odd number is a product of how Pfizer packs the vaccine in groupings of 975.

Those pre-positioned doses will be the first shots to go into residents arms once the vaccine is authorized. Injections could begin shortly after the FDA authorizes a vaccine. That is expected to happen early next week for Pfizer’s candidate

Hospitals say they are ready to go when the vaccine is approved. 

Nursing home vaccinations will begin Dec. 21 when green lighted by the federal government. The hospitals will first vaccinate ICU workers and health care workers who interact with COVID-19 patients. 

Two groups will receive the first doses: health care workers on the frontlines in COVID-19 wards and long-term facility residents. More health care workers will receive doses from subsequent shipments as will other residents of congregate living environments. Essential workers, a group that will require further definitions and tiering, are ahead of the general public in turn.

If you're a health care worker, one of 10 hospitals in the state will administer vaccines the first week. Later on, many more hospitals will begin administering shots. Nursing home residents and staff will be immunized on site at their facilities. For medics and first responders, health departments will administer vaccines.

Residents further down the list will have to wait for further guidance from the National Guard and the Ohio Department of Health as vaccine site selections are announced.

Thomas said the 9,750 doses, including Wexner’s 975, are pre-positioned so that “as soon as the emergency use authorization is approved, we can as quickly as possible start vaccinating our health care workers.”   

Asked if hospital workers who have already contracted COVID-19 would be in the first group to get shots despite their natural immunity, DeWine said questions like that still need to finalized.   

In all, Ohio could receive 650,000 doses in December between Moderna and Pfizer doses.

​These vaccines are two-dose regiments. But DeWine said the state will immunize people immediately with all the doses available as they come in. Second shots will arrive for the first recipients three or four weeks later.  “We are not holding half of it back,” DeWine said.

After the first shipment of Pfizer, more vaccine is expected around Dec. 22, when DeWine is told 201,000 Moderna doses and 123,000 doses of Pfizer's vaccine will arrive, the first test for Ohio to see how efficiently the state can administer mass quantities of vaccine.

That large Moderna shipment was expected to be distributed to health departments around the state. The local health departments will be responsible for administering shots to emergency medical responders and other first responders. 

The last vaccine shipment of the month, scheduled for around Dec. 29, is expected to bring 148,000 Pfizer doses and 89,000 Moderna doses.

Those numbers could fluctuate as the delivery dates get closer. 

Ohio State Wexner Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Andrew Thomas said, “Every call that I'm on ODH seems to know more than it did the day before or the week before in terms of the cadence of future deliveries.” Thomas advises the governor on the coronavirus and coordinates the pandemic response for central Ohio hospitals. 

Bob Weber, administrator of pharmacy services at Wexner, said Wexner has three sites where the vaccine will be administered, and he is eager to get started.

Weber predicted much more vaccine will follow the first shipments.

“I would predict that we'll get much more vaccine sooner. Obviously, the Moderna product will be approved as well. And so we'll get that. My hope is that we will get a steady flow of vaccine that can vaccinate our health care workers first, then obviously focus on our patients second,” he said. 

 The stay is still busy sorting out which individuals will get later rounds of immunizations. DeWine did not have answer Thursday when pressed for details on when inmates might be able to get shots. Other than nursing homes, prisons have been hit hardest by the pandemic in Ohio. Two Ohio prisons rank among of the country’s largest single site outbreaks. 

Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine offers promise, officials said, as do many of the other candidates that could deliver in 2021.

Jeffrey A. Cooper, the Dayton & Montgomery County health commissioner, represents health departments on the state level in the vaccine planning. 

According to Cooper he is “still awaiting final determination from ODH as to how local health departments will be involved in the first phase.”

It was unclear how many health departments might be ready to administer shots this month. 

More hospitals will become involved as more vaccine arrives. More than 110 hospitals have applied to be distribution sites, officials said. 

The governor acknowledge the state is still figuring out how this will play out after group 1A is immunized. 

Adverse reactions to the vaccine from two individuals in the U.K. has caused some concern, a setback officials fear could weaken already poor confidence in the safety of the vaccines. 

Weber said minor symptoms are expected. Ohioans getting the shots will have to be prepared to wait around for a bit to be monitored for reactions.

“We know that minor things occur, obviously fever, things like muscle pain, injection site pain as well, but they're very mild and moderate,” Weber said.