COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The Ohio Department of Health on Monday added two important metrics to its COVID-19 vaccination dashboard.
ODH’s daily tracking of vaccinations on Coronavirus.Ohio.gov now includes the raw numbers and percentages of Ohioans 12 and older and 18 and older who have started and completed vaccination.
Until this week, reporters, trackers and the public have relied for these statistics on the occasional ODH data release or referenced slightly different numbers kept by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of Monday, 50.07% of all Ohioans have started vaccination and 46.50% have completed it, according to ODH. As for the eligible population (12+), 58.52% have started vaccination and 54.35% have completed.
More than 6 in 10 (60.96%) Ohio adults have started vaccination and 56.94% have completed.
In all three metrics (total population, 12+ and 18+), Ohio ranks in the bottom third of states and trails the national averages, according to the CDC.
“We have two Ohios,” Gov. Mike DeWine said Friday in his latest COVID-19 news conference. “We have people who are vaccinated who are very, very safe today. We have people who are not vaccinated who are not safe, and they are more imperiled because of this delta variant.”
DeWine also said that every Thursday his administration will publish the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations that are and are not fully vaccinated.
This statistic, he said, is the strongest “testament to the power of the vaccine,” noting that just 295 of Ohio’s 18,662 coronavirus hospitalizations this year – 1.58% – have been people fully vaccinated.
“The name of the game today is vaccines,” the governor said. “This is where we win. This is where we don't win.”
