COLUMBUS, Ohio — All residents of Ohio will become eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine on March 29, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Tuesday morning.
The state will also expand eligibility on Friday to all residents 40 and older, as well as people with five medical conditions: Cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease and obesity.
𝗢𝗵𝗶𝗼 𝗩𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗘𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲: It's a moral imperative that we move as quickly as we can to vaccinate all Ohioans who wish to be vaccinated. We expect a significant increase in vaccines coming to Ohio soon, so we will expand vaccine eligibility. ⬇ pic.twitter.com/jjFXtMhtf4
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) March 16, 2021
"We have every indication from the federal government and the Biden administration that we will see a rather significant increase for the week of March 29," DeWine said.
The announcement was made at the Cleveland State University Wolstein Center mass vaccination clinic, which opened Tuesday.
Residents 16 and older will be eligible for vaccinations in the end of March. The news comes after President Joe Biden announced he had instructed all states to make the vaccine available to everyone by May 1.
DeWine said 16- and 17-year-olds will only be eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine, whereas those 18 years and older can have either of the three available.
The governor said he spoke with health commissioners this week about eligibility, and he said there was "consensus" it needed to be expanded due to lack of demand in some counties.
DeWine said there are 766,000 Ohioans under the age of 40 with medical conditions that aren't eligible to get the vaccine. For ages 40 to 49, that number jumps to 818,000.
Ohio is the second state to announce that it's expanding eligibility to those 16 and older. Michigan will allow 16-year-olds with high-risk medical conditions as well as those 50 and older to receive the vaccine starting March 22. Michigan officials plan to expand the eligibililty further on April 5, but no other details have been released.