Patient Susan Maxwell Trumble is inoculated with the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at South Shore University Hospital, Wednesday, March 3, 2021 in Bay Shore, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Youngstown is among the cities selected for state-sponsored mass vaccination sites that will open in a couple of weeks to provide large numbers of COVID-19 inoculations to those eligible.

“Mass vaccination clinics have always been part of our plan, but adequate supply is necessary for larger sites. So, it was critical that we first established local provider sites in all 88 counties to ensure that every citizen in every community has a provider nearby,” Gov. Mike DeWine said Friday.

While DeWine didn’t disclose the locations, Eric Ryan, whose company manages the city-owned Covelli Centre, said he expects the downtown Youngstown facility to be selected.

“I haven’t heard a final word, but we’ve been in discussions about doing it,” he said.

Ryan added: “We have the space and the parking. We can set it up in the concourses. The other option is the main arena, in the bowl, when the hockey season ends.”

April 24 is the last day for the Youngstown Phantoms hockey team’s regular season home game.

“We could be ready to go tomorrow if they wanted it,” Ryan said. “With restricted capacity, we can’t book anything that makes financial sense.”

The center can book shows at only 25 percent capacity under a recent Ohio Department of Health directive. The only events it’s had since March 2020 have been Phantoms hockey games and a Christian men’s rally.

Asked about the Covelli Centre, Dan Tierney, DeWine’s spokesman, said: “It’s not officially confirmed. Preparations are underway, and we expect an announcement soon.”

LARGE CLINICS

Now that the state has more than 1,250 local COVID-19 vaccine providers and “a significant increase in vaccine supply (is) expected at the end of March, this is the right time to finalize and prepare to launch these large-scale regional clinics,” DeWine said.

The clinics will administer between 300 and 3,000 vaccines a day, depending on location, supply and demand, DeWine said. The locations could open as soon as March 17, Tierney said.

Appointment scheduling options and the state’s central scheduling system will go up before the vaccination sites open, he said.

The length of time the mass vaccination sites will remain open depends on “supply and demand,” Tierney said.

The mass vaccination sites, like other locations, are to inoculate only those who are eligible to receive the shots under the state’s criteria. Right now, that includes people at least 60 years old, those with certain medical conditions and those working in certain occupations such as child care, at funeral homes, firefighters and law enforcement, corrections and probation officers.

Those eligible can register for vaccinations at any of the mass sites, Tierney said.

“These are designed that if you want to drive to any of them, you can,” he said. “If you live in Ashtabula or Stark (counties) and want to come to Youngstown, you can do that.”

There will be 11 permanent state-sponsored vaccination sites and four mobile sites.

In addition to Youngstown, the other state-sponsored permanent sites will be in Akron, Lima, Maumee, Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati, Chillicothe, Wilmington, Marietta and Zanesville. The four mobile locations will be in Ada, Athens, Mansfield and Steubenville.

Also, a mass vaccination clinic will open March 17 at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center. It will be able to administer 6,000 COVID-19 vaccinations a day. The clinic will be open for eight weeks.

That location was recommended by the state and selected by the Federal Emergency Management Agency based on its proximity to a large number of Ohio’s high-risk citizens and medically underserved populations, DeWine said.

The Cleveland site is different from the others in that more vaccinations will occur and while the state will manage it, it is receiving support from FEMA and the U.S. Department of Defense. The federal government won’t be involved with any of the state’s other mass vaccination sites.

LIFTING RESTRICTIONS

All health orders related to the pandemic will be removed in Ohio once the COVID-19 caseload falls to 50 per 100,000 residents for two straight weeks.

The state was at 731 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 on Dec. 30, down to 445 on Feb. 3 and at 179.6 this week.

Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, ODH’s chief medical officer, said Friday: “I’m very confident we will meet that threshold.”

Asked if it would be in the summer or the fall, Vanderhoff said: “I don’t know, but I’m encouraged by seeing the trajectory.”

DeWine made that threshold announcement Thursday. Tierney said he couldn’t say what would happen if the state went to at least 50 cases per 100,000 residents and then went above it.

For the state to get to 50 cases per 100,000 residents, it would have to average no more than 417 new COVID-19 cases per day for two weeks. The last time the state was that low for a single day was June 17 with 412 new cases reported.

COVID-19 DATA

The ODH reported 1,750 new COVID-19 cases in the state Friday, down from the daily average of 1,976 for the past 21 days.

The state had a total of 976,230 COVID-19 cases with 921,707 presumed recovered and 17,502 deaths as of Friday.

With a new policy on how it reports COVID-19 deaths, the ODH will provide that information only on Tuesday and Friday, said Stephanie McCloud, its director.

Since Tuesday, the number of new COVID-19 deaths reported increased by 752.

That included 428 Ohio residents who died out of state, McCloud said. Some other states didn’t send death certificates to the ODH on a regular schedule — accounting for a majority of the increase, she said.

Mahoning County had 19,556 total COVID-19 cases as of Friday with 18,301 presumed recovered and 551 deaths, according to the ODH. It saw an increase of 14 deaths reported since Tuesday.

The state reported Trumbull County had 14,397 total COVID-19 cases as of Friday with 13,403 presumed recovered and 424 deaths. Trumbull had 11 new deaths since Tuesday.

Columbiana County had 8,165 total COVID-19 cases as of Friday with 7,689 presumed recovered and 210 deaths, according to the ODH. The county increased its COVID-19 death number by 10 since Tuesday.

VACCINATIONS

The ODH reported 1,871,969 people, 16.01 percent of the state’s population, had received at least one dose of the vaccine as of 6 a.m. Friday, including 69,309 in the previous 24 hours. That is the most for a 24-hour period in Ohio since vaccinations started Dec. 14.

Moderna and Pfizer vaccines require two doses while the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which arrived this week in Ohio, requires one dose.

In Mahoning County, 18.64 percent of the population (42,619 people) had received at least one dose compared with 17.13 percent in Trumbull County (33,916 people) and 15.48 percent in Columbiana County (15,772 people) as of 6 a.m. Friday, according to the ODH.

There were 1,025,941 people, 8.78 percent of the state’s population, who finished the vaccine process as of 6 a.m. Friday, including 41,499 in the prior 24 hours.

In Mahoning County, 10.7 percent of the population (24,473 people) had completed the process while 8.95 percent of the population in Trumbull (17,724 people) and 8.14 percent of the population in Columbiana (8,295 people) had as of 6 a.m. Friday.

The Mahoning County Public Health District is allowing those newly eligible for the vaccine to register on its website: www.mahoninghealth.org.

The district is capping the number of new registrants at 1,000. Those who successfully register will be contacted by the district to schedule an appointment.

dskolnick@tribtoday.com