COLUMBUS — Gov. Mike DeWine announced Tuesday that next week “we will open vaccinations for those Ohioans with severe congenital, developmental, or early-onset medical disorders who make them particularly vulnerable AND who have a developmental or intellectual disability.”

These disorders include cerebral palsy, spina bifida, congenital heart disease, type 1 diabetes, inherited metabolic disorders, severe neurological disorders including epilepsy, severe genetic disorders including Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome and Turner syndrome, severe lung disease including cystic fibrosis and severe asthma, sickle cell anemia, and alpha and beta thalassemia.

DeWine said, “For those persons with an intellectual or developmental disability AND one of these conditions, their local county developmental disabilities board will reach out to them to help coordinate receipt of the vaccination.

More information on this is available at coronavirus.ohio.org .

Schools

“We are working directly with schools to determine what the vaccination of school personnel looks like locally,” DeWine said. “As of today, 96% of public school districts have committed to returning to school at least partially in-person by March 1st.

School districts are choosing either a retail pharmacy partner, secured by the state, or an existing local partnership to administer the vaccines, he said.

“Administration of vaccines will happen through the school-provider partnership and begin the week of February 1st for the first dose and continue over the month. We will share more details next week,” said DeWine.

Phase 1B

As Ohio’s Phase 1B vaccinations continue for residents age 80 and up, staffers at Kettering Health Network’s Jamestown Health Center were shown remotely as two residents — a 101-year-old woman and a 98-year-old man — received their COVID-19 shots as part of the center’s first batch of vaccinations.

The Phase 1B vaccination schedule also includes:

• The week of Jan. 25: Ohioans 75 years of age and older; those with severe congenital or developmental disorders.

• The week of Feb. 1: Ohioans 70 years of age and older; employees of K-12 schools that wish to remain or return to in-person or hybrid models.

• The week of Feb. 8: Ohioans 65 years of age and older.

Dashboard

Ohio reports 836,055 total cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began. The state has had 10,336 coronavirus-related deaths as of Tuesday’s dashboard, with 43,605 hospitalizations including 6,391 ICU admissions.