YOUNGSTOWN — With Ohio officially exceeding 1 million COVID-19 cases, Gov. Mike DeWine said an unknown additional number of state residents had the virus and didn’t know it.

“This is one more milestone that we did not want to hit, but this is where we are,” he said during a Monday visit to the Youngstown health district’s COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Eugenia Atkinson Recreation Center on Otis Street.

He added: “The good news about this is that there’s a lot of us who now have the immunity and don’t even know we have it. A lot of Ohioans have had the virus and did not even realize that they had it.

“So as we look at getting that herd immunity that we’ve been talking about — which means that this virus is really driven to the ground — the fact that we’ve had a lot of Ohioans who’ve had it is not good. But one of the things when we calculate how far we’re going or how fast we’re going to get to that herd immunity is that we have had a number of Ohioans who clearly have some immunity at this point.”

The state had 1,001,194 COVID-19 cases reported as of Monday, according to the Ohio Department of Health. That’s 8.57 percent of the state’s population.

The first case in Ohio was reported March 9, 2020, though the ODH has since backdated the first cases to Jan. 2 of that year. The state exceeded 100,000 cases on Aug. 9, 500,000 on Dec. 8 and 900,000 on Feb. 2.

DeWine said different parts of the country — specifically mentioning Michigan and West Virginia, which both border Ohio — recently have seen large increases in the number of COVID-19 cases.

He added that Ohio during the past few days hasn’t seen a steady decline.

“These cases were going down,” DeWine said. “It would appear that we’re now starting to plateau and, of course, our concern is (if) we start back up. So this is a real race. We have to stay on the defense, continue to wear our masks. We’ve got to do that and we’ve got to vaccinate as quickly and as fast as we can as many Ohioans” willing to get vaccinated.

ODH data, however, shows the number of COVID-19 cases during the past five days has a range from 931 to 2,104.

The minimum eligible age for vaccinations is 40 and will drop to 16 starting next Monday. DeWine announced in Youngstown that vaccination sites in the state can start offering doses to anyone at least 16 immediately if not all inoculations are being claimed.

There aren’t many places that would be impacted, DeWine said.

During a Monday news conference in Columbus, DeWine updated visitation guidelines for those in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities to allow visitations with fully vaccinated people that includes physical touch if they are wearing masks, for them to be in people’s rooms and to allow visits for at least 30 minutes in length.

Restriction could be renewed if a new COVID-19 outbreak occurs in the state, he said.

VETO TODAY

DeWine sent a letter Monday to legislative leaders explaining why he’ll today veto Senate Bill 22, which would let the General Assembly vote on whether to extend or end states of emergency, modify public health orders and limit the role of local boards of health during health crises.

The Legislature has the votes to override the veto, but DeWine said he sent legislative leaders a proposed compromise that allows them to have oversight and addresses concerns they have without making the bill a law. He declined to give specifics of his plan.

If the bill becomes law, “it jeopardizes the safety of Ohioans,” DeWine said.

In the Monday letter, DeWine said his “deep concerns about SB 22 are for the safety of our citizens in the future. The emergence of a yet-unknown, epidemic illness bursting on the scene — just as COVID-19 did — remains a very real threat as does the risk of state and non-state-sponsored terrorism. Ebola also remains a danger across the world and right here in Ohio.”

He also wrote the bill “makes a dramatic change in how and where the state can be sued,” and significant portions of it are unconstitutional.

MAYOR VACCINATED

Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown joined DeWine during Monday’s visit to the city. While at the clinic, Brown received his first COVID-19 vaccination.

“It’s safe, it’s effective and it’s one of the ways we can get back to normal in our lives,” Brown said.

He added: “Minorities are more hesitant and we want to remove those myths. We want to make sure they’re armed with the facts.”

The city health district has started moving its vaccination clinics to other locations in Youngstown in addition to the Atkinson center.

That will include weekly clinics at the downtown Covelli Centre, where 500 vaccines will be provided, compared to 350 at other sites, Erin Bishop, city health commissioner, said.

It will be held on Thursdays starting April 1 — with the exception being April 14 instead of April 15 — and run through sometime in May as needed until the city sees a decline, she said.

To register online, go to covid19.youngstownohio.gov.

COVID-19 by the numbers

The number of cases, changes in cases and deaths in counties in the region and statewide as of Monday:

County Cases Change since Change since Deaths*

yesterday last week

Trumbull 14,764 +16 +147 446

Mahoning 19,936 +22 +159 573

Columbiana 8,291 +3 +38 217

Ohio 1,001,194 +1,444 +10,854 18,340

SOURCE: Ohio Department of Health

*Because of a changed data collection policy, recent death totals are not available.