LIVE TWEETING DEWINE FROM HOME TODAY, where my lovely wife has made my workspace just a little more inviting. Nice!

Follow along for today’s thread...

Today's briefing will begin with another round of live vaccinations, including one in a drive-thru program run by @primary1health

This is on 3433 Agler Road in Columbus, where Thursday's drive-thru clinic will also be located (by appointment through @primary1health). 82-year-old Winnie Taylor is being vaccinated against COVID-19 by a member of the @OHNationalGuard.

Next live vaccination is at Discount DrugMart pharmacy in Mansfield.

And next one is in Dayton: a partnership between Montgomery County, Zeke's Family Pharmacy and Mt. Enon Missionary Baptist church, to vaccinate people with developmental disabilities.

That's *Zik's Family Pharmacy (pronounced like Zeke, though)

DeWine notes that as of yesterday, Ohio is vaccinating those who are 75-and-older, those with congenital, early-onset or inherited medical conditions, and those with development/intellectual disabilities.

#NEW: DeWine says vaccine doses available for the eligible groups – mostly elderly – are rising (great!) due to counties finishing Phase 1A vaccinations.

Right now, Ohio is averaging about 146,000 doses available per week from @moderna_tx and @pfizer/ @BioNTech_Group.

HOWEVER: that will probably drop again once vaccinations become available for teachers and other adult school personnel.

DeWine says received federal approval to use 77,000 COVID vaccine doses, which were set aside for use in nursing homes. Pharmacies found not all workers/residents wanted a shot.

The doses were supposed to be set aside till March; now they're available for the next 2 weeks.

On vaccines in schools, @GovMikeDeWine says school workers in Cincinnati will begin vaccinations this Thursday; others February 1st; others later still.

"We have plans for everybody in every school in Ohio, who works there...to get the first shot in the month of February."

Next week's schools that are beginning vaccinations have already been notified they may begin February 1st.

All schools should be told by Friday, which week they will start COVID vaccinations. All schools will be assigned a pharmacy partner by Friday, as well.

DeWine drawing attention to the steep downward curve in Ohio COVID patients in hospitals, day over day.

I talked about this in my Facebook live, previewing the briefing today on @wsyx6 Facebook page (do you watch each day?).

#DEVELOPING: @GovMikeDeWine is talking about removing Ohio's 10PM-5AM curfew...

DeWine: "(Hospitalizations) are still high, 3 or 4 times where flu would be...but compared to where we had been, it's a better number and it appears to be an improving number."

DeWine says the concern remains that a new COVID strain is in Ohio and still appears to be more contagious that previous strains.

"Another caution...we're improving because of what you have been doing...we have to continue to do that (masks, distancing, etc)"

#BREAKING from @GovMikeDeWine: "If Ohio has 7 straight days where hospitalizations with COVID remain below 3,500, "we should be able to announce Thursday we'll go to an 11PM curfew. Our plan will be to keep that curfew for two weeks."

Ohio is at 6 straight right now.

MORE: if hospitalizations stay below 3,000 for an additional 7 straight days, Ohio would go to a midnight curfew.

If hospitals then go below 2,500 for *another* 7 days, then the entire curfew comes off.

Now @LtGovHusted is giving us a new pose: next to a Sterling Ultra-Cold Freezer, made in Athens, Ohio. Currently at -98.5° Fahrenheit which is safe storage temperature for @moderna_tx and @pfizer/ @BioNTech_Group COVID vaccines.

I will say, despite him wearing gloves, I thought it was a printer at first.

“PC loadletter???”

Husted says Sterling is working 10 hours per day, 6 hours a week to keep up with demand as this ultra-cold storage freezer is critical to the vaccine supply chain.

In Q&A, @GovMikeDeWine is asked about reports the @JoeBiden @WhiteHouse is promising 16% more vaccine doses per week to the states: "I cannot confirm that number, you'll have to wait for the White House to confirm it."

DeWine says every hospital/pharmacy in Ohio should have a "backup list" of those who can receive vaccine doses that are prepared but not administered at the end of a shift.

He prefers the list to include anyone eligible in the Phase 1A/1B groups right now.

DeWine is asked how the state decides which schools go first for vaccines: "This is a scheduling decision I've left up to our team...we had a very specific request from Cincinnati Schools: 'Can we start a little bit?' And we worked it out so they could start a few days earlier."

DeWine is asked about gradual nature of taking off the curfew: "We want bars/restaurants to be able to plan. We don't want to be jerking them around... take a snapshot on Thursday, two weeks from this Thursday we'll snapshot it again." The two-week waiting period won't change.

DeWine is asked about differences in now working with the Biden administration: "We had a good relationship with the Trump administration, meetings 1 week or so with the Vice President...(Biden) has been a very good relationship as well."

DeWine is asked about teacher unions saying return-to-classroom shouldn't be pegged to 1 date: "We know so much more today; we know the power of masks, that students/school personnel will wear masks... we're gonna try to get everybody their first (vaccine) in February.." (cont'd)

DeWine touts the Ohio study showing low classroom spread in schools too: "When you layer all those protections together, I think" schools are a very safe place.

DeWine confirms early childhood educators are not included in the teacher/school personnel group: "We try to stay focused to the question of how we can save the most lives with limited vaccine...and children K-12, getting them back in school."

DeWine is asked help for senior citizens seeking out vaccines. Why hasn't Ohio provided more streamlined process for the elderly: "Some states run a few big (vaccination) sites...we decided to put a provider in every community. What that means is people are scrambling...(cont'd)"

DeWine says in a few weeks, Ohio will debut a central scheduling website with sign-up links for every vaccination location in Ohio: "It will be an improvement, but we know we have to reach people who can't navigate that...we're also doing outreach at churches, elderly housing."

DeWine says Ohio will *not* slow down COVID vaccine eligibility. He teased it last week, BUT: "We announced how we were going to stagger it; it'd cause more confusion if we changed that."

So next week, 70+ year-olds get COVID vaccine; the week after, 65+ https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/governor-dewine-says-ohio-may-slow-down-covid-vaccine-eligibility-01-19-2021

DeWine: "Our job is to try to make decisions where we can save the most lives, get our kids back in school, and protect our health workers...the best predictor is age."

Says no carve-outs in vaccine eligibility right now for respiratory conditions like asthma.

DeWine says Ohio needs help from private sector in fixing unemployment system woes; says there's an announcement coming "shortly" about that.

"I came to the conclusion this is a massive job; we really need someone from the private sector to come in and take that over."

DeWine says Ohio is #2 in nation for vaccinating people in nursing homes: "We're very proud of that...we are per capita, one of the highest states for people in nursing homes."

BUT, Ohio had to "bank" nursing home shots — that's why this is happening now https://twitter.com/GeoffWSYX6/status/1354146648277065728?s=20

However, this is also what held down vaccination numbers for the rest of the population.

DeWine wraps up for today; plans to return on Thursday.