“This really aligns with what we’ve seen throughout this entire pandemic: It’s disproportionately affected older adults, but especially those from communities of color,” said Tricia Neuman, senior vice president of Kaiser Family Foundation, to AARP.org.
In Ohio, 83,869 Black residents, 32,195 Asian residents, and 19,105 Hispanic/Latinx residents have started the vaccination process. Less than half the Black residents who have started the inoculation process have completed it, and just more than half of Asian and the Hispanic/Latinx populations have completed the process.
Through Wednesday, 1.53 million Ohioans have started the vaccination process, and 772,126 have completed the process. There are 11.68 million people in the state.
The percentages are similar in Butler County.
Through Wednesday, 43,787 county residents (11.4 percent of the population) have started the vaccination process and 20,027 (5.2 percent) have completed it.
Most in the county who have started the vaccination process (34,916) and finished (15,483) are white residents.
Of the 1,971 within the county’s Black population that have started the process, and less than 900 have finished it. The 783 people within Butler County’s Asian population, less than 400 have had both shots.
A little more than half (50.4 percent) of the people that have started the vaccination process have been fully vaccinated with one of the two vaccines approved by the FDA for emergency use, Pfizer and Moderna. The majority of those being inoculated are women.
For every two women in Ohio, one man has started and completed the COVID-19 vaccination process as of Wednesday, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
Nearly 15.6 percent of the 5.96 million females in Ohio have received at least one of the two shots, and just more than 8 percent, or 480,072, of women have completed the inoculation process.
Older Ohioans 80 and older represent the majority of people who started the vaccination process, with 302,719 (60.6 percent) as of Wednesday. There have been 215,530 octogenarians and older to receive both doses.
For the time being, only those 65 and older are eligible to receive the vaccine, as well as teachers, first responders, health care workers, and those with high-risk illnesses, diseases or disabilities.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday there’s been more demand than supply, but while that issue isn’t ending, there will be 310,000 first-dose shots in Ohio. When the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine receives its emergency use authorization by the FDA, Ohio will immediately receive an additional 90,000 vaccines in that first week from the federal government, DeWine said.
The additional doses will help vaccine those older Ohioans as less than 27 percent of Ohioans 65 to 69 have received the first dose, and 40.6 of those 70-74 have received the first dose.
“We need to see these numbers keep moving forward,” DeWine said. “We drive these numbers up, the number of people over the age of 65.”
The governor said 87 percent of all COVID-19 deaths are people 65 and older.
FACTS & FIGURES
Here are who has received the first and second shots of the COVID-19 vaccines:
80 and older: 302,719 received the first shot and 215,530 received the second shot
75-79: 186,994 received the first shot and 76,576 received the second shot
70-74: 221,806 received the first shot and 43,383 received the second shot
65-69: 179,057 received the first shot and 35,473 received the second shot
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