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Ohio Posts List Of Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Sites Not Disclosing Vaccine Info

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — There have been more than 6,900 COVID deaths in Ohio nursing homes – 38% of all the deaths in the state. Now Gov. Mike DeWine made public a list of nursing homes and assisted living facilities that have not asked for the vaccine or said their staff and residents have been vaccinated.

Ohio Department of Aging Director Ursel McElroy joined Gov. Mike and Fran DeWine for the first COVID vaccine among Ohio nursing home residents, at the Crown Point Care Center in Columbus in December.
Ohio Department of Aging Director Ursel McElroy joined Gov. Mike and Fran DeWine for the first COVID vaccine among Ohio nursing home residents, at the Crown Point Care Center in Columbus in December. [Karen Kasler | Statehouse News Bureau]
DeWine said 90% of all nursing home residents have been vaccinated since they were among the first to get access in December. The numbers are lower for staff.

The state has been through its more than 900 nursing homes and over 700 assisted living facilities three times, to make sure people who missed the vaccine got it. And it has set up a vaccine maintenance program to get shots into nursing homes for new residents and staff, or for those who want it but haven’t been able to receive it.

But DeWine said some facilities have not let the state know whether they need the vaccine or made their own arrangements, though they’ve been asked repeatedly. So a list of 56 nursing homes and 158 assisted living facilities that haven’t notified the state is posted here.

Among them is the Close to Home V assisted living facility in Athens County and the Belpre Landing Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Washington County.

“I’m to the end of my rope with them, frankly. I don’t know what else to do but to make this information public,” DeWine said. “I think people have a right to know if these facilities are not availing themselves of something that the state is providing that will save lives.”

Rates of nursing home staff taking the vaccine are much lower than resident rates.  A recent survey from a large nursing home chain reported 61% of staff had been vaccinated. The group that lobbies for nursing homes in Ohio said last month around half of nursing home staffers are still turning down the vaccine.

DeWine said in an interview for “The State of Ohio” in January that he won’t mandate the vaccine but that he wanted a way for families to know about vaccination rates in long term care facilities.