On Friday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, speaking from Cleveland State University, said the new mass vaccination site in Cleveland, which had been announced earlier by the Biden administration on Friday, March 5. 

The governor said the facility would be able to administer 6,000 shots per day and is expected to be up and running by March 17. The site will be open for 8-weeks.

Federal health officials are partnering with the State of Ohio to build a new major Community Vaccination Center in Cleveland,  with the new center, to be located at The Bert L. and Iris S. Wolstein Center. 

The Wolstein Center was chosen as the site for the FEMA clinic site using a range of criteria, most central to those in the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index. This tool was created to help emergency response planners and public health officials identify and map communities that will most likely need support before, during, and after a hazardous event. The index takes into consideration critical data points, including socioeconomic status, household composition, minority status, languages, housing type, and transportation.

The governor also announced 15 additional regional mass vaccination facilities around the state, which will be run by the state of Ohio. which will open by the end of March.
People will be able to call, or go online through the state's coronavirus website and register soon, or will be able to visit in person to schedule an appointment.
 

The state-sponsored mass vaccination clinics will be located in Lima, Maumee, Dayton, Columbus, Akron, Youngstown, Cincinnati, Chillicothe, Marietta, Wilmington, and Zanesville. Four mobile mass vaccination clinics will also make rounds in the areas of northwestern and west-central Ohio (Ada), southeastern Ohio (Athens), north-central Ohio (Mansfield), and east-central Ohio (Steubenville). 

The regional mass vaccination clinics, which will begin opening in the coming weeks as supply becomes available, will operate until they are no longer necessary.

According to the governor, the regional mass vaccination sites will be locally operated with support from the Ohio Department of Health and Ohio Emergency Management Agency. Clinics will be equipped to administer between 300 and 3,000 vaccines a day depending on location, supply, and demand. Ohio’s established vaccine providers can also expect to see an increase in their vaccine allotment as supply increases, and vaccine doses may also be allotted to new providers.

The governor also announced two pop-up sites will be located in Columbus and Cincinnati starting March 19. Specific locations were not immediately announced.

Governor DeWine said that 50,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine will be dedicated to the two pop-up mass vaccination sites in Columbus and Cincinnati.  The pop-up clinics will open shortly after the March 17 start date of Cleveland’s mass vaccination site and will offer 12,500 first doses at each location. Those vaccinated during the Columbus and Cincinnati pop-up mass vaccination sites will be guaranteed a second dose. Exact site locations are pending.

“Mass vaccination clinics have always been part of our plan, but adequate supply is necessary for larger sites, so it was crucial that we first established local provider sites in all 88 counties to ensure that every citizen in every community has a provider nearby,” said Governor DeWine. “Now that we have more than 1,250 local vaccine providers and a significant increase in vaccine supply expected at the end of March, this is the right time to finalize and prepare to launch these large-scale regional clinics."

The goal is to reach every Ohioan who wants to receive the vaccine, DeWine said. 
 
The governor's live stream from the facility, unfortunately, dropped multiple times during the announcement.
 

A complete list of the selected regional mass vaccination clinic sites and associated local partners can be found at governor.ohio.gov. 

More information on Ohio’s vaccination plan can be found at coronavirus.ohio.gov/vaccine.

 
Map of sites