(Cleveland) - Hundreds of thousands more Ohioans are soon going to be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination. Governor Mike DeWine announced Tuesday that starting Friday, March 18, vaccination signups will be open to anyone in Ohio 40 years and older, along with anyone with one of these health issues: cancer, kidney disease, COPD, heart disease, or obesity. Then, On Monday, March 29, anyone in Ohio 16 and older can sign up.
DeWine says this is possible because of hundreds of thousands of more dosses of vaccine being sent to Ohio by the federal government.
Meanwhile, everything is ready to go for Ohio's first mass vaccination site, at Cleveland State University's Wolstein Center. The mass site officially opens Wednesday, March 17, but soft openings with limited capacity are already underway.
When you arrive, your temperature will be taken. If it's above 100.4, you will not be allowed inside. Once you are checked in, you wll be escorted to the floor of the arena. Socially distanced chairs are set up all over the floor. You will stay there, and members of the Ohio National Guard will be pushing carts down each row, administering the vaccine. That's where you'll stay for 15 minutes to see if there are any side effects.
If you are headed to the mass vaccination site, there will be free parking, and free mass transit service. As for parking, the best place to park for free is CSU's South Garage off East 21st Street. Other parking lots nearby will have signs telling you can park for free. Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) is offering free one-day passes for buses, Rapid trains, and paratransit to any vaccination site in Cuyahoga County.
You must register in advance for the mas vaccination site. All appointments for the first week are taken, but they'll be accepting people for three weeks, and then again for the final two weeks, when the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine will be given.
(Photo by Ken Robinson, WTAM)
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