T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Rick Wilson of St. Clairsville receives a COVID-19 vaccination Tuesday during a busy clinic day. The age range of 50 and older will be expanded to 40 and older Friday, and more conditions will be taken into account. Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers in the Ohio House of Representatives are calling for an end to mask mandates.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — As more COVID-19 vaccines are made available, the state is again expanding the age range of eligibility, this time to those Ohioans 40 and older. This occurs just a week after vaccine eligibility had expanded to those age 50 and older. By March 29, all Ohioans ages 16 and older are expected to be eligible.

However, GOP lawmakers are putting forward a bill calling for an end to Gov. Mike DeWine’s statewide mask mandate.

DeWine announced Tuesday at Cleveland State University that, beginning this Friday, all Ohioans 40 and older, as well as those with expanded medical conditions such as cancer and obesity, will be able to register for vaccinations.

Belmont County Deputy Health Director Robert Sproul commented Tuesday during a lull between morning and afternoon crowds arriving at a vaccination clinic at the Ohio Valley Mall, mentioning that only the Pfizer BioNTech version of the vaccine is designated for 16-year-olds.

“The Moderna (version) and the (Johnson & Johnson) are just for 18 and above, so unless those come back with a change on their age range for their vaccine, Pfizer’s going to be the only one that can do that,” he said. “We haven’t looked real hard at that group, because again … they were thinking that was going to be a good ways down the road, so this is kind of moving a little sooner than we expected. We’re going to have to see what the interest is.”

“(President Joe Biden) mentioned that he’s hoping everyone who wants a shot has it by May 1. He says he’s going to get the doses out to us,” Sproul said, adding DeWine has set a goal of 50 active cases per 100,000 people in the state average to revoke all health restrictions.

Meanwhile, Ohio lawmakers led by Ohio Rep. Jena Powell (R-Arcanum), are putting forward House Bill 202 with the goal of revoking the mask mandate.

DeWine has consistently emphasized masking as an important component to stopping the spread of COVID-19. In a press release on Powell’s site, she said more than a dozen states have removed restrictions and are thriving in economic, mental and emotional health.

In a later interview, Powell also questioned the metrics DeWine was using.

Powell could not say when the bill might go before the legislature.

“We did drop this bill last week,” she said. “We’re waiting on first hearing of the bill. We’re hoping it moves through swiftly, since we have over 20 co-sponsors on the piece of legislation. People have the ability to make smart decisions for themselves, and while states around the nation have removed their mask mandate, we believe it’s far past time for Ohio to do the same.

“We’ve tried to work with the administration, and they don’t want to work with us,” Powell added, “and there’s a lot of different problems with the data-metrics that the governor used for his response, and his response did come after my bill was put out to the public, that we were dropping it. The governor did give us a metric, but we still feel that that metric is not good and Ohio does need re-opened. We’re waiting on first hearing and we’ll see what we can do.”

Powell said the decision whether to wear a mask or not would be a personal one.

“A lot of people in our community are freedom-believers,” she said. “They understand the Constitution. They don’t think the governor should have the ability … almost since last summer to do a statewide mask mandate. They believe in personal responsibility. If individuals still want to wear their masks, they can.”

Kroger recently announced that, regardless of any state’s decisions, the franchise will maintain a masking policy until all front-line grocery workers are able to receive a vaccine.

Meanwhile, Sproul said staff anticipate administering many more doses.

“We had quite a few this morning. We had the second dose of (the Pfizer BioNTech version) this morning. We’re doing the second dose of Moderna this afternoon. We had 400 this morning. We’re looking at a little over 300 this afternoon,” Sproul said, adding he hopes to administer 700 doses today.

“Excluding the schools (where adult staff will be receiving their second doses) we’ll probably be doing 1,200 doses this week,” he said

He said the online registration is seeing high use, with 450 people registered Tuesday compared to about 250 on Monday.

“It’s still alive until it runs out of spots,” he said.

“More and more doses will be coming, which is great. That means we can start having the clinics go a little bit bigger. It’s also easier with the electronic (registration) so hopefully we get fuller clinics,” he said.

Sproul said his office has not yet learned how many vaccinations will be shipped next week.

Sproul reported there have been 5,439 cases since the pandemic’s onset, with 173 people isolated with active cases, 5,097 recoveries, 66 people hospitalized and 103 people have died after contracting the virus.

To determine eligibility, visit gettheshot.coronavirus.ohio.gov and register at belmontcountyhealth.com