Some 15 million Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses had to be discarded after an incident at a production plant in Maryland. It’s unclear if that will affect Ohio’s plans to continue its vaccine rollout, now that everyone over 16-years-old is eligible to get a shot.
Gov. Mike DeWine said the state will be regularly evaluating its distribution plans for the vaccine shipments that arrive by each Tuesday at noon.
“As we continue to get additional vaccinations, we will make the decision every single week about where we deploy those. It will still be based primarily on population," DeWine said in a press conference Thursday.
The state is leaning heavily on the single-shot J&J vaccine to use on college campuses and at mass vaccination clinics in major cities.
These ruined doses could mean the state will have fewer J&J shots.
The Ohio Department of Health said in a statement that Ohio is still getting around 172,000 J&J doses by April 6. Once there’s more information about future weeks, the statement continues, “we will have a better idea of any direct impacts there may be on the state’s vaccination plans.”
