T-L File Photo The Bridgeport Exempted Village School District and others have been busily educating students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although vaccinations of adult school staff will begin across the Buckeye State next week, no local school districts are among those designate to receive doses.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Ohio school employees are set to begin receiving COVID-19 vaccines next week, but no local school districts are among the first group to get the shots.

Gov. Mike DeWine intends to make the shots available to school staff through February with the goal of resuming full-time in-person schooling in March.

Belmont County Deputy Health Director Robert Sproul addressed this during his Wednesday report to the Belmont County Board of Commissioners. Sproul said the state released names of the first school districts to receive vaccinations next week. However, no school districts in Belmont, Harrison, Jefferson or Monroe counties are on the list.

“We’ve been notified our school will not be done next week,” Sproul said. “We’ll wait to see if we get in the following week or not.”

The list is available at coronavirus.ohio.gov. It states that school personnel in Allen, Athens, Butler, Columbiana, Delaware, Franklin, Hamilton, Mahoning, Medina, Montgomery and Summit counties will be eligible for the vaccine next week. In most of those counties, several public school districts are included, along with dozens of private academies and parochial schools. Hamilton County is the exception, since only Cincinnati Public Schools is listed there.

Melanie Amato, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Health, said the decision to prioritize the vaccine’s availability was due to a limited supply.

“The vaccine is incredibly scarce and we simply don’t have enough vaccine for every teacher this week. The governor has said the goal is for every teacher to have the opportunity to receive their first dose by March 1. Just as administration for other groups is a rolling process, vaccinating school personnel will be a rolling process. The logistics of coordinating providers and public, private, charter, and career-tech schools are challenging with such a limited vaccine supply. In the first week alone, 91,000 school personnel are eligible to begin being vaccinated and those schools have been notified. The remaining schools and districts will learn when their scheduled vaccinations will be available.”

In answer to questions from the commissioners, Sproul said his office will receive separate doses designated for either senior citizens or the schools. The number of vaccinations designated for the schools will depend on the requests sent by the school districts to Sproul’s office. When school staff doses are received, Sproul’s staff will visit the individual schools to administer them.

Sproul said preparations for the second week of Phase 1B vaccinations for Ohioans 65 and older are continuing. Last week, 400 doses were administered to Belmont County residents 80 and older. This week, residents 75 and older will be called to another site for another vaccination clinic day.

“It went pretty well. The public was very happy. We didn’t have any issues,” he said. “Got in, got out very quick.

“We’re at a different location, but we’re reaching out to all the people again,” he said. “We actually physically called the individuals on our list, the next 400.”

However, Sproul said there are about 7,000 people on the list, and many have sought the vaccine from other sources.

“We’re calling through our 80-year-olds in that list. There’s a lot of people who are getting it at Kroger, a lot getting it at Barnesville (Hospital),” he said. “If they’ve already got it, they’ll call us. Then we’ll call the next group. The hiccup is the people getting it elsewhere. That’s delaying us a little bit.”

Residents are asked to register online at belmontcountyhealth.com rather than calling the health department office. Sproul said online registration offers greater convenience for all involved.

Sproul reminds the public that when his office or the Code Red system contacts recipients to arrange a vaccination, they will not ask for personal information but will only provide a time and location to receive the shot.

“A lot of people are worried about scams,” Sproul said.

“Next week, we’re looking at receiving 300 doses,” Sproul said, adding this will be the Moderna version of the vaccine. Barnesville Hospital and the Kroger pharmacies in Bellaire and St. Clairsville will also receive shipments.

Sproul said there have been 4,855 confirmed cases in Belmont County since the pandemic’s onset, with 830 people in isolation at home with active cases. There have been 3,887 recoveries and 48 people are hospitalized. A total of 90 county residents have died after being infected with the virus.