No plan to punish schools breaking vaccine bargain, DeWine says

Feb. 16—COLUMBUS — While expressing disappointment with a handful of Ohio's K-12 schools not living up to their end of the coronavirus vaccine deal, Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday there are no plans to punish the virtual stragglers.

The governor noted that every school district in the state except one signed agreements that every student would be physically back in classrooms at least part of each week by March 1 in exchange for getting all of their teachers, administrators, custodians, bus drivers, and other employees vaccinated.

School districts in Akron, Youngstown, and Cleveland, one Cincinnati high school, and some classes in Columbus have now said they can't be back by the deadline they agreed to.

"The sad thing is we did not know that these schools in question were not going to go back by March 1 until after everyone had been vaccinated," Mr. DeWine said during his regular coronavirus update with reporters. "...We can't take the vaccine back...We're going to live up to our bargain.

"We're going to give them the second shot," he said. "We're not pulling back the second shot either. We made this commitment, and we're going to live up to our end of the commitment."

When asked what he would say to many older Ohioans who didn't like his decision to place younger, healthier school employees ahead of them in line but accepted his reasoning, he said he still considers the school vaccination program to be a great success.

"Even the schools that have said they can't make the March 1 deadline..., well, they've told us they can make March 15," Mr. DeWine said. "Again, that's not what we want. It's not acceptable, but these kids will be back in school. I think it's been very successful.

"We have been able to continue to vaccinate our older population at a pretty decent rate during the four weeks in February...," he said. "These were tough calls..., but we felt this was the only way, particularly with our urban schools, that we were going to get them back in (the classrooms)."

The state has been setting aside about 60,000 doses a week to at least give school employees their first dose during the month of February. Many, but not all, will have received their second doses by March 1.

The governor noted that the number of Ohio children still being educated fully remotely has dropped from 47 percent to 15 percent since he first announced his plan to target vaccines to school employees in early January. Every public school district except one in Montgomery County at least initially agreed to the March 1 target.

He said some school districts have been operating on a virtual basis since March, 2020. He also said that the schools that have been in class have shown that students will wear masks and that spread of the virus is very low.

Toledo Public Schools is set to return to hybrid in-person education next week, with students returning to class according to whether they are in the A group, to meet Monday and Thursday; the B group, meeting Tuesday and Friday; and the C group for self-contained special education classes, meeting all four days.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released guidance suggesting that schools in virus hot zones should still teach virtually, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said that Ohio has put vaccines behind its own decision to reopen schools sooner rather than later.

As of Tuesday, 11.3 percent of Ohioans had received at least the first shot of a two-dose regimen required of the two vaccines currently available, Pfizer and Moderna.

In addition to school employees, Ohio's top vaccine priorities are those age 65 and older and those with certain congenital and developmental conditions — such as cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, and Down syndrome — that place them at greater risk.

It also continues to get second doses to residents and staff in nursing homes and other long-term care settings.

Meanwhile, child-care workers, pre-school teachers, funeral home employees, police, prison staff and inmates, grocery store workers, and parents of immunocompromised children are among those asking to join the line. The governor said his administration has heard from 700 such groups.

But Mr. DeWine said he plans to hold at the current priority threshold for several more weeks and could not offer a timetable on when other groups might be added.

This occurs as the state experiences weather-related delays in vaccine shipments from the manufacturers on Monday. The governor advised those with vaccine appointments to check with their providers in advance to make sure they received their shipments.

Mr. DeWine again vowed to veto another bill approaching a possible vote that would create a legislative committee with the power to rescind orders by a governor or health department — such as the stay-at-home and school closing orders issued last year — to stop the spread of a contagious disease.

"We are not out of this yet...," Mr. DeWine said, noting the emerging threat of new, more contagious variants of the virus.

"This is not the time for us to be cutting our authority, the health department's authority back in regard to protecting the people of his state," he said. "Also, it has long-term ramifications well beyond this governor, well beyond this health department, well beyond this pandemic."

He said he believes such a bill would be unconstitutional.

Ohio reported 2,026 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, well below the 21-day average of 3,351. The state also reported 59 new deaths Tuesday, well below the 21-day average of 268. The high average is due to the state's gradual addition of some 4,000 previously unreported deaths into the system over the last few days.

Ohio has seen a total of 943,291 cases and 16,453 deaths, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Lucas County reported 53 new cases and two more deaths for respective totals of 33,973 and 697 since the start of the pandemic.

First Published February 16, 2021, 1:57pm