COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio Department of Health held a briefing Friday morning discussing the current state of COVID-19 in Ohio.

ODH Chief Medical Officer, Dr, Bruce Vanderhoff began the meeting stating that Ohio is feeling hopeful with the drop in COVID-19 cases and the possible and hopeful transition from a pandemic to an endemic.

Vanderhoff was joined by Dr. Joe Gastaldo.

Gastaldo says that unlike a pandemic where no one has any degree of immunity to a novel virus resulting in a wide spread of the virus, an endemic would make COVID-19 more of a seasonal virus such as influenza.

Gastaldo says the best way to get to the endemic stage is immunity, and the safest way to get exposure and immunity to the virus is by getting vaccinated.

"Through vaccines and people having exposure to this virus in their environment in their day-to-day lives, we are left in the background with more people having various degrees of immunity," Gastaldo said.

"It's that type of immunity that will give protection to people most importantly from severe disease that will result in hospitalization or death," Gastaldo continued.

Vanderhoff noted that to get to this stage, Ohio needs to have enough people protected with strong immunity conceding with Dr. Gastaldo that a key part of this is getting vaccinated.

Currently 60% of eligible Ohioans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and 32% of eligible Ohioans are boosted.

Vaccinations are lowest among younger Ohioans with approximately 47% of those aged 16-17 are fully vaccinated. Approximately 42% of those aged 12-15 are fully vaccinated and approximately 19% of children aged 5-11 are fully vaccinated.

"As we move forward, we need to continue to see our vaccination numbers rise to boost our state's immunity," Vanderhoff said.

Dr. Vanderhoff ended the conference with a sense of optimism regarding the supply of rapid COVID-19 tests noting that the state has purchased and is distributing 5.6 million tests, resulting in an increase in a flow of tests to the state.

"Earlier in [January], when acquiring tests was particularly challenging, the priority was to send tests to our K-12 schools to help them stay open and keep our children in the classroom," Vanderhoff said.

"More recently, as supply has begun to improve, the state has been able to send more tests to our community partners including libraries and community centers," Vanderhoff continued.